


Crusader

by Havoka



Series: here be dragons [5]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: D.Va the Destroyer, Dragon AU, F/F, MekaMechanic, featuring Reinhardt as the proud dad of two Junior Crusaders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-04-19 23:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14247666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoka/pseuds/Havoka
Summary: On her journey with Brigitte and Reinhardt Hana sees the world in a new light. Now she's left wondering how she can ever truly fit into it.





	1. See my heart, I decorate it like a grave

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for 1500+ hits on Destroyer! I'm really glad people enjoyed it, and I hope you all enjoy the next leg of Hana's story arc too!

" _'Cause_ _it's the end of the line of the final journey, enemies leaving the_ _past! And_ _it's_ _American troops and the German army, joining together at last!'"_

Hana had never been inside a vehicle before starting her journey with Reinhardt and Brigitte. Once she had gotten over the motion sickness it was actually kind of fun. Their van could take them all sorts of places, and in weather Hana could not have flown in. It was also nice to be able to sleep and travel at the same time.

The only thing she didn’t like was the music. It was loud and constant, and both Brigitte and Reinhardt took it upon themselves to sing along with nearly every song. Maybe Hana would have joined in if she actually knew any human songs, but she didn’t, so it just annoyed her.

"I don’t think Hana likes our singing," Brigitte said from the front passenger seat of the van. Hana barely heard her. Her claws were plugging up her ears.

"Ah, well we can't have one of us not enjoying themselves." Reinhardt turned the radio off. That spurred a sigh of relief from Hana. "What would you prefer, young Hana? Other music? No music? 'Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall?'"

Hana lifted her chin from her wrists. "What the heck is that last one?"

Brigitte shook her head vigorously. "Nothing you'll want to listen to. Trust me."

"I just want to sleep," Hana murmured.

"You dragons sleep a lot, huh?"

"Being so big, flying, and breathing fire all takes a ton of energy." She yawned loudly. "If nobody wakes me up I can sleep for years."

"Literal years?"

"Literal years."

"Wow. How do you get by on a human sleep schedule with us, then?"

"Staying in my human form consumes way less energy."

"Oh. Well that's good." Brigitte smiled at her. "You're a lot cuter in this form, anyway."

"Well yeah. I'm not  _supposed_  to be cute in dragon form."

"Well you are still cute. Just not  _as_  cute."

Reinhardt chuckled from the driver seat. "I just wish I could have been there to see your father's reaction to all of this. He didn't even want you going to concerts for fear of meeting 'dangerous people'."

"I know, and back then I told him there was nothing to be worried about. ...Then I came home with a black eye and three broken fingers from that brawl in the Metalfest moshpit."

"But you should have seen the other guys, right?"

Brigitte laughed. "Right!"

Hana lowered her head and closed her eyes again. It still bothered her that she didn’t understand most of Brigitte's stories. She didn’t share any of those memories. She wanted to tell Brigitte about her own experiences, but they were either boring or horrifying. Such was the life of a creature that spent its life rampaging and sleeping. 

Respecting Hana's wishes, Reinhardt and Brigitte kept the music off after that. Hana sprawled out across the blanket they'd put down in the back of the van and laid her head down on it. She liked the heat of the moving vehicle, and the way it rumbled. It always lured her right to sleep.

Of course, even in the deepest slumber a dragon was always listening. As she slept her ears picked her name up several times, mostly spoken by Brigitte. However, at one point, she heard Reinhardt speak it.

_I think you would just about kill your father with that._

_Yeah, well that's why he doesn’t know yet. And besides, I bet Hana could make good girlfriend material. In the mornings I can put my cold feet on her and warm them up._

Hana shifted to better listen to their banter.  _Girlfriend?_

They must have noticed her shift, for they lowered their voices after that. But the thought was in Hana's head then.  _That's what_ _Fareeha_ _calls Satya._ It seemed to be a human term for a mate, less sexual and more sentimental.  _I'm female in this life, and so is she. But so is_ _Fareeha_ _, and she fell for Satya even before she knew Satya had been born a dragon and not a dragoness._ What was the point of that? She and Brigitte could never produce offspring together. Unlike in her last life Hana could not sow her seed in the belly of every dragoness she came across. She still  _wanted_  to...she missed laying with women. She missed their scent. Their touch. Their moans. She had tried to embrace mating with male dragons, but the idea ultimately repulsed her. And  _human_  men? Unthinkable. She had only ever requested men from willing human villages to torch and steal their weapons and armor. 

Brigitte would make a wonderful mate. She was strong, intelligent, and kind of heart. Hana may not have been able to put an heir in her, but maybe there was something to be gained from a mate other than progenation. 

She drifted back to sleep, full of questions about what exactly "girlfriend material" amounted to.

* * *

 

Hana did not often sleep deeply enough to dream, but curled up in the back of the questing van her mind apparently felt safe enough to wander. Left to its own devices it conjured a scene vaguely familiar to her – the heart of a volcano. She stood tall and mighty atop a jagged rock formation within it, surrounded by magma. Her tail swished coyly as the heat and steam licked at her scales.

This was her old life. Her life as...

She squeezed her eyes shut and racked her brain. But no, even in a dream she could not recall her old name. It was as if it had been sealed away in her mind.

She recalled this scene, though.

The magma before her bubbled. Within moments it was taking form, and a large, imposing dragoness soon rose out of it and caught Hana's attention. She climbed up onto Hana's rock and shook the magma from her glittering scales.

Hana paced around her, growling deeply. The dragoness had once been a consort of the Destroyer. She could remember that much – but no more. In fact she could not even remember what this dragoness looked like – instead of whatever she was before, she was now at least partially comprised of Brigitte's features. Her scales were a beautiful deep chestnut, and her body was thick and muscular. 

The Destroyer had never been a gentle lover. But in this dream Hana gave her consort a soft lick on the face and a nibble on the ear. The dragoness licked her back. Immediately Hana felt arousal swell within her. She climbed up on top of her consort, and pinned her to the ground with her massive weight. The dragoness snarled and bit Hana's foreleg. Still Hana persisted, attempting to angle herself for mating. The dragoness twisted around enough to slash her across the face. Hana recoiled. Further attempts to reconnect with the dragoness were met with bared teeth and claws. 

Hana stumbled backward.  _What am I doing?_  That had been her norm as a dragon, but something had clearly changed since then. The behavior now horrified her.

"I-I'm sorry." Hana's voice was garbled. The Destroyer had rarely spoken. She backed off the dragoness, but still the female hissed at her.

This wasn’t how it had happened in reality. In reality the Destroyer had planted his seed in this consort. It was the last time he ever mated, and he had not even lived to see the dragonlings born from the union.

"I'm sorry," Hana repeated. "I'm sorry!"

The dragoness pushed her face in close to Hana's. " _Why are you sorry?_ "

"Huh?"

Suddenly the dragoness became Brigitte. One hand was on her hip as she stared down at Hana. "What are you so sorry about?"

"About trying to...?" The dream world around her began to break apart. She realized Brigitte was speaking to her in the waking world. Hana's eyes peeled open; sure enough, she found Brigitte kneeling over her.

"You kept saying sorry."

"Oh."

Brigitte held out a hand. Hana met her in the middle, and their fingers linked together.

"So...what are you sorry about?"

Hana averted her eyes. "Just some stuff I did in my last life."

"You were dreaming?"

"Yeah."

Brigitte sat down beside her. "What do dragons dream about? Besides past regrets, apparently."

"I don't usually dream. I only started lately."

"Oh?"

Hana rolled over onto her back. "Uh-huh."

Brigitte flopped down beside her. "Soo...what about?"

Hana sighed. "The way I used to treat my consorts."

"Consorts?"

"Yeah, my...mates."

"With an 's'?"

"I had dozens. I was one of the most powerful creatures on earth. Every other dragon either bowed to my will or died opposing me."

"Wow." Brigitte seemed to mull that over for a minute. Then she said, "But  _I_  got to introduce you to pie."

Hana's troubled expression eased just a bit. "That's true."

Brigitte reached out and settled a hand on Hana's cheek. "You know, you're not responsible for what you were back then. You didn’t know any better. You were – I mean, no offense, but you were just an animal following its instincts. Human morality doesn’t–can't–really apply to that."

Hana drew back, instead opting to stare up at the ceiling of the van. 

"And besides, that wasn't even really you, anyway. That's like...that's like my cat being responsible for everything a flea hiding in her fur ever did."

Hana turned her head to face Brigitte. "Isn't it more like your cat being possessed by the soul of an ancient, powerful flea that took over her body to make it more flea-like, she was raised by a flea, and flea life is all she's ever known?"

"...Okay, maybe that wasn't the best comparison."

Hana perched herself up on one elbow, then leaned over and gave Brigitte a small lick on the cheek. To her surprise Brigitte turned and licked her back. " _Mleh_ _._  There, how do you like being licked?" She must have noticed the heat in Hana's cheeks. "...You like it, don't you."

"Well in dragon culture licking is a huge deal. You don't lick just anyone. Pretty much just family and mates."

"I see." Brigitte crossed one leg over the other and shook her foot idly. "Too bad I don’t fit into one of those categories."

Hana settled in beside her, exhaling softly as Brigitte wrapped an arm around her and drew her in close. "What does 'girlfriend material' mean?" she asked.

Now it was Brigitte's turn to blush. "Oh...you heard that?"

Hana nodded.

Brigitte pulled Hana in even closer. Hana assumed she was going to lick her again, but this time Brigitte gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Hana's entire body tingled from the contact. She pushed the other girl up against the wall of the van and climbed onto her lap. She was beginning to dig her claws into Brigitte's chest when she came to her senses and abruptly pulled back.

"What's wrong?" Brigitte cast a glance to the front of the van, where Reinhardt was sacked out in the driver's seat. 

"I don't – I don't want to..." She inched backward, then curled up against the far side of the van.

"Hana." Brigitte crawled after her. "It's okay. I  _want_  to kiss you. I like you!"

"But if I get too into it I'll hurt you." She squeezed her eyes shut. "It's the way I am."

Brigitte made no responding sound. Still Hana kept her eyes closed. Eventually she heard the other girl shuffle away from her. When she finally did re-open her eyes, Brigitte was back up front with Reinhardt.  _Probably for the best._

She attempted to fall back to sleep, but her head was full of thoughts. Never had she detested her dragon side so much.  _I wish I could stop having these dreams to remind me of horrible I was._

An emotional state like this would normally drive her into Satya's warm, protective embrace. But even if Satya were there with her at that moment, Hana wasn't sure she would go to her. Resentment smoldered in the pit of her stomach. 

She could have had a normal life.

* * *

 

The first stop the Crusaders made on their quest was a grimy little washout of a town. A single breath of fire would have taken it right down. It was easy to see why it hadn't already been destroyed, though. There was absolutely nothing of value to be found within it.

Brigitte had outfitted Hana with custom armor that obscured her body and face. Even her yellow eyes were covered, a translucent black visor on her helmet blocking them from sight. It hindered her normally quick, fluid movements, but rendered her unrecognizable as a dragon. Considering how on-edge everyone in this town already looked, that was probably the more important thing.

"Why do humans live like this?" Hana glanced about the dirty streets. The windows on several of the buildings were smashed, and there was garbage scattered underfoot everywhere. 

"A lot of reasons," Brigitte replied, keeping her voice low. "Some can't afford to get out. Some just don't want to."

"Afford?"

"In human society you have to pay for a house and property and all that. You work toward...toward credits, kind of, that you can trade in for that kind of stuff, as well as food, clothing, weapons, et cetera."

Hana studied her. "Work?"

"Yeah. Most humans perform labor so they can afford what they need."

"Why don't they just take the things they need?"

"Because then you get arrested. Which means other humans show up and capture you and lock you in a cage for months or years or the rest of your life."

Hana hesitated. "Humans do that to each other, too? Not just to dragons?"

"Oh yeah. It's called going to jail. If a human takes something they can't afford then that's where they go."

Hana thought back on all the human-made items she was storing uselessly in her cavern back home. "I didn't know they had to work for all their stuff."

"Yeah, unfortunately that's just the way the world is, at least at this point in time."

Something ice cold coiled around her heart, as if she had just swallowed a block of ice and it was sliding slowly down into her stomach. All this time she had believed humans to be the scourge of dragonkind, hogging all the shiny things and territories. But maybe the dragons were just bullies taking from the smaller and weaker all the time.

Even Satya, caring as she was toward her loved ones, had no qualms about robbing and killing random humans. It was just the draconic way.

A giant hand came to rest on her shoulder. She looked up to see Reinhardt smiling down at her.

"Do not be troubled, young Hana. You have much to learn – but all the time in the world to learn it!"

"Yeah, I know." In spite of Reinhardt's reassurance Hana could not shake the unsettling feeling inside of her, splitting her dragon and human souls apart with resentment and regret. "You guys just...can't understand."

"We can try our best." Brigitte took her hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. Through her thick armor Hana could not feel it.

The humans of the town stared at them as they strode down the streets. It made sense for them to stare. Reinhardt was gigantic, and Brigitte wasn't far behind him. The three of them were outfitted in radiant, shining armor that put to shame the ragged clothes of the townsfolk. They must have looked like something out of a fairytale.

_If only they knew._

Reinhardt paused their walk outside of a particularly rundown building. Its walls were a chipped white brick, its roof a thatched black with several poorly-patched holes in its surface. "Ah, the local tavern!" he exclaimed. "We must stop in and get a taste of the local brew."

Hana followed them inside the narrow doorway of the old building. Immediately she was assaulted by novel smells – most were foul, but some were fairly interesting. Humans of all shapes and sizes dwelled within this odd building, drinking from mugs and talking loudly. Some were fighting. Others were clearly attempting to court other humans. The smell of sweat and sex hormones was almost overpowering.

Upon stepping inside, the Crusaders drew immediate attention. A few scrawny human men yelled out at Brigitte with sleazy grins on their faces. Hana was beside her in an instant, but Brigitte didn't seem too fazed. She certainly wasn't as bothered as Hana, whose heart began to pound as she realized how many male humans here could attempt to claim Brigitte right out from under her. 

Brigitte must have sensed her upset, for she reached out and gave Hana's hand a quick squeeze.

There was a counter at the far end of the "tavern", where several humans sat yelling at a rectangle on the wall. Hana's first thought was that it must have been a window, but the area outside the tavern was most certainly not a sunny green field full of humans running around in bright colors.

"Greetings!" Reinhardt pulled up a stool and sat down at a counter near some other humans. Brigitte took a seat beside him. Uncertainly Hana slipped into the seat next to her. 

"So, Hana," Reinhardt asked her, his tone as jovial as ever, "how do you like your drink?"

"My...drink?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Rein."

"Nonsense! One drink never hurt anyone." Reinhardt planted an armored palm on the counter. "Three beers!"

Before Hana could protest the human at the bar dropped a mug of frothing drink in front of her. She leaned over and gave it a sniff.  _How am I even supposed to drink this through my helmet?_

Brigitte took a swig from her own mug. "Hana, if you didn't like coffee you probably won't like beer. I honestly wouldn’t even bother."

"But I want to try it."

"Okay, fine." Brigitte leaned in close, blocking her from the other patrons. "Do it quick."

Hana lifted her mask and took a sip. Immediately her mouth was filled with a warm, bitter liquid and foam bubbling on her tongue. It was certainly a strange taste, but weirdly Hana did not hate it like she had hated "coffee". She licked at the froth and chewed it, feeling every little bubble pop in her mouth. She then picked the mug up and gulped down a mouthful. 

"I think I like this," she said.

"Ha ha! Good taste!" Reinhardt slugged her on the back so hard she nearly choked.

The drink burned a little on the way down, though it was nothing compared to breathing fire of course. Hana tipped her mug back and drank it down.

"Great," Brigitte murmured, resting her chin on a palm. "Now we've got  _two_ booze hounds."

"Can I have some more?" Hana was trying to stuff the mug in her backpack, but was stopped by Reinhardt with a quick headshake. 

"I don't know if that's a great idea, Hana," Brigitte said.

Hana's tongue slithered out of her mouth. All her nasty teeth were exposed as she hissed at Brigitte. Brigitte grabbed Hana's face with one hand and angled her away from everyone else. "Hey, remember where we are!"

Despite her upset tone there was, as always, concern in her eyes. It managed to bring Hana back to the present moment. She shook her head to clear away her irrational dragon-brain thoughts. "...Sorry."

"It's okay. You know I'm just lookin' out for ya."

Chin lowered, Hana pursed her lips and looked down at the empty mug in front of her. "I guess I probably shouldn't have any more."

"Christ, let the girl have a drink."

Their attention turned to a human man slouched over the bar. His eyes were shadowed by the brim of a leather hat. Smoke drifted from a burning stick in his mouth. When he breathed, a stream of that smoke came out with it. "God knows you need it in a town like this."

Hana dropped the visor of her helmet to obscure her face again. "It's okay," she said. "If somebody doesn't stop me I'll hog it all for myself."

The man chuckled. "Probably be doin' us all a favor."

Hana laughed unsurely. Reinhardt, on the other hand, got a hearty laugh out of the man's words. 

"Anything else?" the human tending the bar asked them. Reinhardt seemed hesitant, but ultimately said, "No thank you. Need to keep sharp for the road ahead!"

Brigitte was studying the human man smoking beside them. "So there's something awry in this town?" she asked.

The man puffed out another lungful of smoke. "More wrong with it than right."

"Like what?"

Hana knew why Brigitte was asking. They'd been hoping for some wickedness to defeat ever since they'd first set off with Hana.

The man snuffed out his smoking stick and then took a drink from his mug. "I'd be here all night."

In the low light of the tavern Hana caught a glimpse of something glittering on the man's arm. She quickly realized that it in fact  _was_  his arm.  _I didn't know humans could be made out of metal._ It definitely wasn't silver or anything valuable, but it was certainly interesting. The novelty of it tickled her hoarding instinct – she had to actively restrain herself from reaching over and trying to grab it.

The man turned and looked Brigitte over. "Why?" he asked. "You goin' lookin' for trouble?" His gaze lingered on her for a moment – a moment too long for Hana's liking. She slipped partway off the stool, ready to get between the human and Brigitte. The man must have noticed her tension, for he said, "I don't mean anythin' by that." He took another swig of his drink. Looking off into the distance he murmured, "Y'ain't my type anyway."

"We're on a quest," Brigitte replied, skipping over the latter part.

"Yeah, we're on a journey of self-discovery," Hana added. "Doing good deeds for humans."

"For people," Brigitte uttered.

"Oh, r-right. For  _people._ Like us!" Hana broke out into a nervous sweat.  _I just exposed myself, didn't I._

To her surprise, the man simply smirked. "That right?"

"It is true," Reinhardt added. "We are  _Crusaders!_  We travel the land helping those in need."

"So you're vigilantes." The man turned to face them then. He pulled another smoke thing from his pocket and lit it with a tiny plastic igniter. 

"Sort of." Brigitte wiped a bit of froth from her lips, then took another swig of her beer. "We  _have_  done our share of vigilantism."

The smile on the man's lips seemed to have an untold story behind it. "Y'know," he said, "I hear there's a  _dragon_  'round these parts."

Hana's spine stiffened.

"Oh?" Brigitte rubbed her forearm, avoiding looking at Hana. "Is there?"

"Yeah." He tipped his hat down over his eyes. "Real mean one. Lives up in the mountain that throws its whole shadow over this damn town."

"Does it attack this place?"

"It's always threatenin' us to get what it wants."

Dragons were a subject Hana knew and understood, a rarity in this human-dominated world, so she was eager to pick up a lead of that kind. "Let's go confront it! We can keep it from terrorizing the town anymore."

"You're willing to confront anoth–a dragon?" Brigitte immediately bit her tongue.

"Of course. Don't you remember what I told you about my past?"

"I guess..."

Hana hopped off her stool and approached the man. "Does this dragon have a name?"

The man flicked some ashes from his smoke stick. "I don't know it."

"Okay. Well dragons live by themselves usually, so it'll be the only one on the mountain." She looked to Brigitte and Reinhardt. "Wanna go?"

"I guess we should."

"Of course!" Reinhardt slapped some paper down on the counter, which the bar human quickly collected. "Shall we set off now, Junior Crusaders?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Hana was already heading for the door. Although her human side was eager to do a good deed, she knew deep down there was a greater reason the thought of confronting another dragon excited her. It had been so long since she'd tested her skills against another dragon. Too long.

Brigitte paused to cast a look back at the man who had tipped them off. He was drinking quietly, a small smirk on his face.

"I don't know how much I trust this guy," she whispered.

"Well if he's trying to lure us into a trap or something, he's gonna fail at it. I've been tricked by enough humans to learn my lesson."


	2. The Quick and the Dragon

The mountain did, in fact, swallow most of the town in its shadow. It was no wonder the place appeared so dismal. From town you couldn't see the top of the mountain, for it was shrouded in mist, but as one approached its base one could begin to see that its peak was surrounded by storm clouds that shot bolts of lightning out in all directions.

"Looks pleasant," Brigitte murmured as they parked their van in the shade of some trees.

"Yeah, I'm used to volcanic mountains. This one seems more stormy than molten." The moment Hana touched the van door her fingers snapped with static. "Ow!"

The path up the mountain was dark and ominous. It was also quite ruined, clearly no longer maintained by humankind. Hana knelt down and sniffed around the base of the path. "Doesn't smell like much. This dragon mustn't come down very–" Just as she said that she caught a whiff of something. "Huh...this smells familiar." Though they were old and faint, the path had scent particles clinging to it that she recognized. "Oh! I know! It's that human from the tavern!"

"Huh." Brigitte lingered just behind Hana, staring at the path as if her weak human senses would tell her anything. "Maybe he tried to slay it himself?"

"Perhaps that is how he lost his arm," Reinhardt added.

"No way. Humans who try to kill dragons, especially on a dragon's own turf, don't just walk away with a missing arm."

"So what was he doing here, then?"

A sudden gale of wind brought heavy, stinging rain down on them. Brigitte raised her shield to cover the three of them, but the moment she deployed it its energy barrier crackled, sparked, and then disintegrated.

Reinhardt tried to open his much-larger shield. It, too, sparked and then failed to deploy.

Hana lowered her helmet's visor. "I don't like this. We should definitely be careful." She was tempted to take her dragon form, but decided to maintain that as a secret weapon. Her human form was lighter and made less noise. With any luck the rain would obscure her scent and this dragon would not be able to sniff her out before she could reveal herself.

That said, however, climbing a mountain with two feet instead of four was absolutely exhausting. They ached after a mere few minutes of climbing. Brigitte must have noticed her slowed pace, for she hung back to keep up with her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine." After that Hana made every effort to stride effortlessly, masking her aching feet. Reinhardt seemed to be doing the same thing. Every few steps he'd suck in a deep breath, and occasionally he mumbled something under his breath. Brigitte kept a close watch on both of them.

"Jeez, Brigitte," Hana puffed, "for all the _pie_ you eat you're awfully _fit_."

"I work out like crazy to make up for it. I actually used to be kind of a wimp just a few years ago."

"Really?"

"Really. Rein knows."

"I would not say _that_ ," he replied. "You were just...eh..." He scratched his chin, searching for another word.

"A total wimp," Brigitte finished. "It's okay, I'm cool with it."

Reinhardt chuckled. "Very well, you said it, not me."

Hana tried not to think about Brigitte's big, strong arms when they were wrapped around her waist, anchoring her in place for those wonderful kisses of hers. She utterly failed. Her face flushed as the memories filled her head.

A deafening roar of thunder snapped her out of her lovestruck fog. She looked up at the sky. Inside the cloud barrier it was dark purple and completely devoid of sun. _What a miserable place to call home._ Then again it was probably fitting. Most dragons were miserable bastards.

Along the rocky path they encountered something strange – a mingling of gigantic dragon footprints and comparatively tiny human ones. Dirt was kicked up everywhere, and the sparse foliage was flattened and crushed into the earth.

"Hmm." The rain had preserved the footprints in the form of crusty mud, but had washed away any scent particles mixed in with it. Hana sniffed long and hard, but could not pick up anything useful from the scene. "Something happened here..."

"A fight, maybe?"

"Maybe."

Ahead of them the pathway gaped open, becoming the gradual mouth of a cavern. It had all the telltale signs of a dragon nest – scratch marks on the rocks outside, burn marks on the ground, and the picked-clean skeletons of various large animals tossed just out of the cave.

Hana stood up to her full height. "This is its lair."

Brigitte unsheathed her mace's handle from her belt and took hold of it. "Do you think it'll be violent?"

"It's a dragon. Violence is how we solve all our problems." Hana found her feet moving a little faster on their own. The thought of sparring with, of even possibly killing, another dragon was exciting that savage part of her heart.

"Are we going to try talking to it first?" Brigitte followed her inside the cavern. "I mean, that's what I did with you."

Reinhardt seemed to be letting them work out a plan on their own. He said nothing, just followed them.

As much as she hated to admit it, Hana had never been like most dragons. Her human heart made her softer – perhaps the reason Satya had ensured she was sealed into the body of a human and not a dragon child. Brigitte was cocky because she had no idea how lucky she was. If literally any dragon but Hana had shown up in Brigitte's test village that first fateful day Brigitte would be nothing but charred bones outside a dragon's lair by now. Her beautiful armor would be thrown in a pile of random human belongings. Some dragons even kept humans' heads in their lair as a testament to their hunting prowess.

The Destroyer was quite familiar with that practice.

She could not bring herself to look at Brigitte with those thoughts in her mind. Every time she caught sight of her she could think only of the girl's severed head, face forever contorted in pain and terror, one of hundreds lining the cavern walls of a dragon's lair. Just like all the faces that had stared eternally back at Hana in her old life.

_All the humans I killed...how many of them were like her?_

"Maybe you should let me handle this," Hana said.

"Not alone."

"It could kill you."

Brigitte frowned. "Hana, I protect people. It's what I do."

"I'm not a person."

"Okay now you're just splitting hairs."

"I'm what?"

Suddenly a burst of electricity arced up from the ground mere meters from them. Hana leapt back. Brigitte's immediate reaction was to open her shield and guard the three of them with it. Of course it still didn't work, and even if it had it wouldn’t have stopped a lightning strike. _Guess she wasn't exaggerating, though._

"Crusaders stick together." Brigitte looked to Reinhardt. "Right?"

Reinhardt nodded and smiled that wise old smile of his. "We are on this journey together. Looking out for your fellow Crusaders is our _utmost_ priority!"

It was such a foreign concept to her. Endangering yourself to protect someone else...what was the point of that? If you were dead you couldn't enjoy their existence anymore, so you couldn't even argue that it was secretly motivated by selfishness. _So why? Is human love just that strong?_

"Okay." Hana reluctantly nodded. "We'll all go together, then."

Brigitte gave Hana's hand a little squeeze as they ducked under the stalactite teeth of the cavern's entrance and ventured inside.

* * *

 

The interior of the cavern was lined with jagged raw purple gemstones. Thousandfold they reflected the light of the torch Hana had ignited with her flame breath. Brigitte had attempted to use a flashlight, but as with her shield the mountain seemed to suck the energy right out of it.

The cavern seemed the source of the mountain's strange power. A prickly feeling ran down Hana's arms as she held them out toward the gem-studded walls. Normally she would have been losing her mind over all the glittering shininess, but at the moment all she could think about was the possibility of Brigitte or Reinhardt getting snapped up, torched or crushed by a dragon. She herself had killed enough humans to witness how terrified and agonized they always spent their last few moments. Writhing in pain as their bodies were torn apart, the human will to survive keeping them painfully aware and clinging on until the bitter end.

Her chest constricted. _I won't let that happen to them._

Deep inside the cave something stirred. The distinct noise of scales brushing stone alerted Hana. "The dragon's in here with us," she whispered. "Be careful."

Brigitte held firm to her mace. "I'm always careful."

Reinhardt, likewise, had taken his giant hammer from his back and was wielding it in both hands.

The deeper they descended into the mountain the darker it got, but unlike Hana and Satya's volcanic home it did not grow hotter. The air did grow strangely denser, though, as if loaded with a powerful energy.

Hana sniffed the ground again. Immediately a scent caught her attention. She wandered down one of the many winding stone paths that unfolded before them. Brigitte and Reinhardt's heavy footsteps echoed behind her as they followed.

This path opened to a ledge. It wasn't until Hana stepped out onto it that she realized what lay in the cavern beneath.

A mountain in its own right of sparking human electronics served as a bed for a gigantic, slumbering dragon. Its scales were the same shimmering violet as the walls, only broken up by turquoise paws with neon purple claws. A neat row of onyx spikes with purple tips divided its head down the middle. It was absolutely gigantic – much larger than Hana, and larger even than Satya. A clear testament to its age.

It opened its giant mouth and yawned. The act exposed a long purple tongue and teeth as long and deadly as its claws. Its breath outward was accompanied by several tiny bolts of loose electricity.

It didn’t seem aware of their presence.

Hana knew better.

"You're not really sleeping," she said. Brigitte glanced uncertainly at her.

At first the dragon did not react. But then, slowly, its lips peeled back into a malevolent grin.

"The old 'pretend to be asleep so humans will hesitate trying to kill you' trick," Hana murmured to her companions. "Prey on human compassion so you can catch them by surprise."

"You're awfully smart for a monkey." The dragon spoke in a low voice, but there was a clear note of amusement in its words. As Hana slipped down off the ledge and onto the lower cave floor she began to pick up the dragon's scent above the awful smell of burning and plastic and burning plastic. The dragon was undoubtedly female. But even without the distinct scent of a dragoness Hana could have told that by her sheer size alone – only female dragons grew so large.

Hana drew in another breath as she walked right up to the dragoness. It had been so long since she'd smelled a female other than Satya. It stirred something primal inside of her. A low growl escaped her throat as she puffed out her chest and tried to look as large and imposing as a 1.6m girl could.

Brigitte swaggered up beside Hana, clanked her mace down on the ground and leaned on it. Hana had never seen her posture so strongly like that. _Is she...jealous?_ Hana could barely contain a laugh at the thought.

The dragoness stretched her neck out and gave Hana a sniff. Her snout was so large that every inhale and exhale felt like a gust of wind.

"Hmm. You smell like a dragon." The dragoness rose up on her hind legs, still grinning. She absolutely dwarfed all three humans then. "So some human-ass-kissing dragon thinks she can barge into my cave and just, what? _Slay_ me?"

Her façade broken, Hana slipped out of her armor and changed form. Brigitte stuck close to her as she padded up to the dragoness on paws that had once felt massive but now felt very, very small. "Stop terrorizing human townspeople."

"What?" The dragoness lowered herself back down. The weight of her forepaws hitting the stone shook the cave so hard that Hana lost her balance and stumbled backward. An arm around her waist quickly steadied her – it was, of course, Brigitte. "When was the last time I terrorized a town??"

"A human in the little town nearby told us you're always threatening them to get what you want."

The dragoness tilted her head in a confusion that seemed utterly genuine. "I haven't attacked a town since I met..." She settled a paw on a sparking black box resembling the one on the tavern wall. "Wait a minute. Who was the human who sent you?"

"I don't know." Hana made a face. "Some guy. Who cares who it was?"

"Was he wearing a poncho and a stupid cowboy hat?"

"Um, a hat, yeah? I don't know what a poncho is."

The dragoness rolled her eyes. "Did he have a _metal arm?_ "

"Oh, yeah! He did."

The dragoness' entire demeanor changed then. Suddenly she collapsed onto her back and started cackling.

"I hate that asshole!" Her forelegs kicked with the force of her laughter. "I'm gonna get him back for this, oh my God. I'm gonna burn his stupid facial hair off."

Brigitte eyed Hana uncertainly. Hana glanced from the dragoness to Brigitte and then back again.

When the dragoness finally collected herself, she rolled back over and settled her paws under her chin.

"That's my idiot boyfriend."

Hana balked. " _Boyfriend?_ "

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The dragoness flicked her tail. "There's just something cute about him, okay? Even though he sends creatures to my mountain to screw with me."

All three Crusaders just stared at her.

"What? What are those looks for?" The dragoness' grin dissolved into a scowl. "I could kill all of you, you know."

"No, no, don't do that." Hana held a hand out. "It's just...surprising. The only dragons I know who have human mates are part human themselves."

"Nah, I'm not human. I was just out and about collecting sparky boxes one day"–she grabbed up a pawful of her hoard and showed it to them for emphasis–"when that dumbass showed up. And you know what he did?" She dropped her loot and pointed a claw at her forehead. It bore a small, dark red scar. "He _shot_ me! He really faced down a dragon and tried to kill me with a fucking six-gun."

"So that made you fall in love with him?"

"Well I grabbed him and flew him back to my lair to eat him, but..." Her tail swished idly. "That motherfucker has a silver tongue, okay?"

Hana gasped. "He _does?_ "

"Not literally. I mean he can talk his way out of anything. I couldn't even speak any human languages then, and he _still_ managed to convince me to not kill him. Then he offered to teach me his languages, and hey, I like hoarding information as much as electronics. So we started spending a lot of time together, and..." She turned the scaly palms of her forepaws upward. "You can figure out the rest."

"So you guys just..."

The dragoness laughed again. "I know what you're thinking. Yeah, mating doesn't really work. We've kinda found ways, but..."

"Why doesn't it work?" Brigitte spoke up.

The dragoness stared at her. "...Really? You're really asking that?"

"I mean, don't you have a human form?"

"What? Why would I have a human form?" She tapped Brigitte's chest plate with the tip of her tail. "Do _you_ have a _dragon_ form?"

"Normal dragons don't have human forms," Hana whispered.

"They don't?" Brigitte looked the dragoness up and down. "So that guy from the tavern is just...?"

The dragoness nodded. "Oh, and now I gotta send you back to screw with him. Oh!" She grabbed something out of her hoard. It shimmered and sparkled. Hana quickly realized it was a bit of shed skin, probably from the dragoness' last molt. "Bring this. Tell him you slayed me. Oh, oh, and record it with one of these." She pushed a sparking black rectangle into Hana's hands.

Hana pushed it back into her paws. "We're not gonna be your go-between for flirting with your human boy toy."

The dragoness heaved a mighty breath out, strong enough to knock Hana onto her rear end. " _Fine._ I'll go see him myself, then."

"No, you can't go terrorize that town." Brigitte stepped in front of Hana protectively. "That's exactly what we came here to _prevent._ "

"Try and stop me." She was already spreading her wings.

Hana sprang at her. She sank her fangs into the dragoness' right wing and tore at it with her powerful jaws. The dragoness hissed and spun around, slamming Hana into the nearest cavern wall. Hana slid down it, dazed.

Her teeth had punched a hole in the other dragon's wing. When the dragoness tried to take off the damp cavern air rushed through it, killing the aerodynamics of the wing. With all the weight of her gigantic body, a damaged wing simply could not carry her.

The dragoness reared up tall with fury in her eyes. It was fixated directly on Hana. "I've killed dragons for less than that."

Hana stood her ground. "I'm trying to help people now. A giant dragon like you would destroy that town just by landing near it."

The dragoness grabbed her in her claws. Even in her dragon form Hana still fit in one of the dragoness' paws. "I could pop your head off with one little bite." She brought Hana to her mouth and opened her jaws.

" _No!_ "

The dragoness recoiled as a mace head struck her dead on the nose. In the moment of confusion Hana wiggled free of her grasp and took off into the air.

"You little shit." Sparks formed around the dragoness' mouth, and then, where Hana and Satya would have breathed fire, this dragon spat wild bolts of electricity. They struck Hana all over her body. While fire would have been deflected by her heat-resistant scales, the electricity sank right in, seizing her muscles and stunning her.

Hana dropped out of the air and crash-landed on the cavern floor. Her limbs spasmed and twitched erratically. She could not regain control of them.

The dragoness brought one of her front paws down on Hana to hold her in place. Her mouth sparked again. Paralyzed, Hana was powerless to resist her.

"Wait!"

From the corner of her eye she saw Brigitte and Reinhardt rushing to her side.

"You will not lay a claw on her." Reinhardt wielded his hammer threateningly. Brigitte did the same with her mace.

"Eh, this was funny at first, but now it's gotten old." The dragoness swiped at them. Brigitte attempted to hook her leg with her mace chain, as she had done to Hana in the past, but this dragon was far too powerful for that. With a snap of her jaws the chain broke in two. The head of Brigitte's mace fell uselessly to the ground.

Hana strained to control her twitching limbs. She managed to pull herself to her feet, though she was still unsteady. She coughed a few times, trying to conjure enough igniter for her fire breath.

The dragoness' ears swiveled back. Quickly she brought a rear paw down on Hana, crushing her windpipe.

"Get off of her!" Even defenseless and hopelessly outmatched Brigitte still stood tall. "That's my girlfriend!"

Hana's eyes widened. Likewise, the dragoness paused her attack. "...Really?"

"Yes." Brigitte leaned to look around the dragoness' thick, stout legs at Hana. "She's trying to learn how to be a better person. That's why she's sticking her neck out for a town she doesn't even know."

Hana wheezed. With clear hesitation the dragoness lifted her foot off Hana's throat. Drained of energy Hana's dragon body disintegrated, leaving her tiny human form curled up on the stone floor.

"Sorry." The dragoness huffed. "I was just screwing around, but then you bit me."

Hana lifted her head, struggling to regain her lost breath. "You were gonna go hurt those townspeople," she gasped out.

"So you bite a chunk out of my wing?" She fanned the wounded wing out for emphasis.

"She's still in training."

"Well lemme give you a piece of advice, then." She picked Hana right up and set her down beside Reinhardt and Brigitte. "That's not a great way to negotiate with creatures."

Hana folded her arms. "Sorry," she murmured, her teeth so tightly clenched that the word was nearly indecipherable.

Their conflict apparently over, the dragoness settled back down atop her hoard. "So you'll get back at Jesse for me?"

"Get back at me for what?"

The crunch of leather boots on gravel preceded a man – the man from the tavern – striding out onto the ledge above. He tipped his hat down at the dragoness, who broke out into a grin. Her long, spiked tail stretched upward and wrapped around his waist. She pulled the man down to her level and brought him close to her face. With her massive, scaly cheek she nuzzled him. He smiled an amused little smile as he kissed her on the cheek.

"...Wow." Brigitte cleared her throat. "And I thought _I_ had weird taste."

"Did they scare ya?" the man asked as the dragoness set him down in the palm of one paw.

"No. I almost killed them, though."

"Oh. Whoops."

"Apparently this one's a dragon fucker, too." The dragoness pointed a claw at Brigitte. "Small world, huh?"

Brigitte's cheeks flushed molten red. "I'm not–we're not–"

"Really?" The man plucked another smoking stick from the pocket of his shirt. "Y'know I thought there was somethin' odd about the littlest one of ya there when I saw you at the tavern." He gestured with the stick at Hana. "So you're a dragon?"

"Well technically I'm a human possessed by the spirit of a dragon, but, uh, yeah."

"Wait a minute." The dragoness lowered her head and studied Hana close-up. "I knew your dragon form looked familiar, but you were so small I never dreamed you could be who I thought you were."

Hana swallowed. "Who did you think I was?"

"Well you look like a miniature version of my old pal Deathwing."

Hana stared at her. _Deathwing..._ The name she had called herself once she'd already gone mad with hatred and greed. "You...you knew me?"

"So it _is_ you??" The dragoness sat up, grinning. "Oh man, it's been so long! What happened to you?"

"Uh, well, I kind of...died. Then this dragoness brought me back to life with a dark ritual. Now I'm here."

"Playing knight with humans?"

"Eh, there's only so much pillaging and murder you can do before you get bored and start craving something else."

"Oh, that is too true." She set her boyfriend down and folded her paws. "So do you remember me? Sombra?"

"Sombra...?" Hana racked her brain. The name did sound dimly familiar, but she couldn't quite...

"I was being sarcastic when I called you my pal, by the way." Sombra licked her teeth. "I hated your ass."

"Oh."

Sombra grabbed her up again. Hana fought, but was no match for the gigantic claws clutching her.

"So, the mighty Deathwing the Destroyer is a tiny little human girl now." She tossed Hana up in the air a few times. "That's _hilarious._ "

"Don't hurt her," Brigitte warned. All present must have known her threat was empty. There was nothing she could do even if Sombra were to start using Hana's wimpy little human body as dental floss.

"Oh relax, I'm not gonna. No way I'd risk giving The Destroyer a way out of this new body of his." She dropped Hana to the ground and shooed her away. "Although you do seem a little more bearable this time around, at least."

"I don't really want to be a dragon anymore."

The confession fell from her lips before she even realized she was saying it. The weight of the statement was immediately apparent from Brigitte's reaction. She turned and studied Hana with widened eyes. Reinhardt, too, was looking at her. Even Sombra seemed surprised.

" _Deathwing the Destroyer_ doesn't want to be a dragon?" Sombra chuckled. "Are – are you serious?"

Hana shrugged, her gaze on the ground.

"Hana...?" Brigitte took her hand gently. "You've never said that before."

Hana gave her hand a squeeze, but did not say any more.

"Why don't you want to be a dragon anymore?" On the surface Sombra's tone was one of amusement, but she lowered herself down and met Hana at eye level, and when she did Hana swore she could see a bit of genuine concern in her eyes. _Guess this dragoness is one of the better ones._

Disconnecting from Brigitte, Hana folded her arms and shrugged. "I dunno."

Sombra poked her on the top of the head with the tip of one claw. "Oh come on, don't be a brat about it. I wanna know."

Hana folded her arms tighter. "Just don't feel any real connection to that part of me anymore."

"Well yeah, because you're going around looking and acting like a human! You need to burn some things! You need to pillage stuff! You're never gonna feel like a dragon when you're walking around on two legs like some kind of weirdo."

"I do like having four legs," Hana murmured. "I don't mind two, though."

"That's just embarrassing. I don't even like you, Deathwing, and I'm embarrassed for you." She nudged her boyfriend. "Can you believe this?"

The man shrugged. "Don't matter to me what she does with her life."

"Ugh, you're useless." She dumped him off onto the ground. "But hey, you know what? If Deathwing the Turf-Hogger doesn't want to be a dragon anymore then that's just fine by me. Hell, I should be happy about it. You're the reason I ended up queen of Shit Mountain over here in the first place."

That got Hana to look up at her. "Wait, really?"

"What, you don't remember? Every dragon around got pushed out by your ass. You had more land than you could ever even visit. Hell, what I heard was that you were out trying to claim even more territory when you disappeared."

Brigitte raised an eyebrow at Hana. Hana smiled sheepishly.

"So yeah, you know – wait a minute." Sombra turned her gigantic head to face her lover. "You think that woman you used to hang around with could help her?"

"Who?" He leaned against her scaly foreleg. "I've met a lotta women. All the ones that ain't you sorta blend together in my head."

The dragoness gave him a lick. Her tongue was so large and forceful it knocked his hat right off. "I meant the one you told me does alchemy or whatever. Maybe she'd be able to metamorphize a dragon into a human, or something."

"Oh," the man murmured, "you're talkin' about _Moira._ "

"Yeah, Moira. She could probably help. Then I'd never have to worry about this bastard dragon taking my land ever again."

"Whoa whoa whoa." Brigitte held her palms out. "Wait a minute. Nobody's doing any alchemical experiments on Hana." Lowering her hands, she then asked in a quieter voice, "If you really don't want your dragon soul anymore, couldn't Satya help you with that? She's the one who put you two together in the first place."

"I don’t want to tell her."

"What? Why not?"

"Because she'll think I don't want to be around her anymore. That I'm choosing you guys over her."

"I mean, you kind of are," Sombra said.

Hana frowned. "I don't want it to be like that. It's just that lately I've been having these dreams, and..."

Brigitte's hand settled on Hana's back. "Well, whatever you want to do, you know we'll support you."

Reinhardt, who had been keeping to the periphery of the conversation, nodded firmly.

Everyone was looking at her then. She could feel their stares.

_Satya would probably disown me._ For all her existence Hana had pushed others away. The thought of losing the one creature who could never be pushed out, no matter how Hana had tried over the years, was terrifying.

Hana drew her forearms in close to her chest. "So about this…'Moira'…"

"I'll take ya to 'er, but I gotta warn ya." The man flicked some ashes from his smoke stick. "She's a bit odd _._ "

"Can't be any odder than a creature like me," Hana murmured.

He chuckled mirthlessly. "We'll see."

"So do I get to go?" Sombra lifted herself up off her hoard. Bits of once-whole human electronics fell from her scales as she did so. "On this fun little roadtrip?"

Brigitte stared up at the dragoness. "Uhh..."

"There is no way you're gonna fit in the van," Hana said.

"Well yeah, obviously I don't fit in human vehicles. I can pick them up with one paw."

"Well...we'd be traveling by van."

"Might be best if ya stayed here anyway, darlin'. Remember the last time we tried to go out somewhere together?"

"I remember the helicopters." She rubbed her snout. "And that barbed net they dropped on me." With a sigh, she laid her massive body back down on the cavern floor. "I guess I probably shouldn't go. Not like I could _fly_ you guys there, anyway."

Hana coughed and looked away.

"It's fine, just go without me." Sombra sank her chin down onto her paws. "Jesse can handle it on his own. I think."

Jesse started to walk away from her, but hesitated before he could get more than a few steps. Sombra shifted to face the wall away from them.

The Crusaders all seemed hesitant as well. Nobody said anything at first – then Brigitte cleared her throat.

"You can stay here, Jesse. Just draw us a map and we'll go."

Sombra did not turn back around, but her ears perked up. Jesse folded his arms. "You sure?"

"I don't know. How far away does this lady live?"

"Pretty far," Jesse replied.

"Would it even be practical to drive there?"

"Well, ya _can_ drive there. It'll take the best part of a week, easy."

"That's fine. We're out to travel, after all. We'll just camp out in the van at night."

Sombra would not look at them. Her tail was swishing across the floor, its diamond scales scraping loudly against the stones.

Humans may have been a mystery to her, but dragon body language Hana could easily read.

"Maybe we can sleep here tonight," she said.

Sombra lifted her head. "Who says I want you in my cave?"

"Well you're swishing your tail like you're mad. Is it just because you're not traveling with us?"

"No. I mean – I mean yeah. Yeah, that's why I'm mad." Sombra huffed sparking air from her nostrils.

"Is that not why you're mad?" Brigitte asked.

Effortlessly, as though he had done so a thousand times before, Jesse climbed right up onto Sombra's gigantic forepaw and leaned back on it to look up at her. After studying her for a few moments, he turned back to the Crusaders.

"She's a lil' salty y'all just showed up here and now are leavin' already."

"What?? No I'm not–"

He nodded at the Crusaders.

"He's full of shit. What, you think just because I can't ever go anywhere because I'm too big and I only ever talk to one person that means I'm lonely or something?" Her sputtering tone belied her words. "I'm a _dragon_. Dragons don't do friendship."

Brigitte glanced over at Hana. "Doesn't _that_ sound familiar."

"I mean, if you really like my cave that much I _guess_ you could spend the night." Sombra's pupils flicked between the Crusaders. "But I want something in exchange."

Hana stood up tall to face her down. "All right, what?"

Sombra looked her over. "I want to know everything about what you've been through, and what kind of 'dark ritual' has the power to seal a creature as powerful as Deathwing into the body of a human child."

"Well...okay, I guess I can tell you about that."

"Great, awesome. Always nice to be informed. And to have allies..." Her slitted pupils had dilated just a bit, taking the Crusaders in with great interest. "You never know when you might find that information useful, you know?"

Hana nodded. Of course, she was no fool. Sombra was "letting" them stay with her under the provision that Hana expose every bit of her life story, her weaknesses and shortcomings included, and that was an extremely unfair trade for one night of shelter that they did not even need or really want.

But it was not a one-sided trade. Hana would learn about her, too, and it was a chance to establish an alliance. Hana clearly could not defeat Sombra in combat, and being on good – or at least not bad – terms with a powerful older dragoness was never a bad thing.

"All right," Hana said at last. "Let's be 'allies', then."

* * *

 

"So I sit up going _'Well where is it then??'_ And you know where it was?"

"It was stuck in your scales, wasn't it?" Hana sat on the dragoness' forepaw, looking up at her as she spoke.

"Of course it was. So I thought he was robbing me, but it was actually my own big butt to blame." She laid a clawed paw on her massive hide for emphasis.

Hana snickered. "Honestly, though, I've done that, too. It's always really embarrassing."

"Jesse was a good sport about it, at least. Especially since I almost killed him over it."

What had started as a tense disclosure of valuable information had ended up devolving into several hours of the two dragonesses swapping stories and having a good laugh about the silly little dragon things Brigitte, Reinhardt, and Jesse could never understand. Hana seriously needed it. She had never had another dragon to just hang around and laugh with. Satya was always very serious.

"Ooh, I've got a funny one." Hana kicked her legs, her scaly heels bumping against Sombra's paw. "Brigitte and I were napping in her bed one time, and apparently I changed form in my sleep. I ended up splintering the bed. We woke up on the floor."

"Pfft."

"And then her _dad_ showed up..."

"Oh no."

"Yeah. Needless to say he wasn't too happy to see his youngest daughter in bed with a dragon."

"That makes me glad Jesse's an orphan."

"He is?"

"Yeah, his parents were killed when he was a kid. He was with some kind of human gang after that. One of the first things he told me was about how they caught him after he escaped and cut his gang tattoo off. Which was, y'know, on his arm."

"Ohhh. So _that's_ why."

Sombra nodded.

"So you two..." Hana glanced over to the human man, who was asleep against Sombra's other paw. "Have you been together a long time?"

"Yeah. I've kind of lost track, but I know a while ago Jesse said it was five years."

"Aww."

"Heh, yeah."

"So could I maybe ask you something?" Hana folded one leg over the other and studied the dragoness.

"Eh, I guess so?"

"Do you ever wish you could have a human life together?"

"A 'human life'? What, slaving away for money until I get old and die in less than a century?" She snorted. "Why would I want that?"

"I don't know. You'd get to have a normal life with Jesse. You could live in a human town in a human house. You could get married if you wanted to."

Sombra continued to stare at her. "Why would I want any of those things."

"...I don't know. That's not appealing to you at all?"

"To be completely honest? I can't think of anything less appealing than living like a human."

Hana's eyes lowered. "Guess you're a normal dragon."

"So you _like_ the idea of all that? You wanna prance down the wedding aisle with Brigitte in a dainty white dress and flowers all in your hair?"

"Is that what humans do when they get married?"

"I think so."

Hana tried to picture herself in a dress. Brigitte would look beautiful, of course. But Hana? Her rough, scaly skin would look ridiculous against a soft white gown. But the thought of the two of them promising themselves only to each other was sweet. And then they could settle into a house of their own, and, heck, maybe she couldn't impregnate Brigitte, but they could take in a child like Satya did. Or maybe they could settle for raising cats instead.

Sombra was still studying her. "That _is_ what you want, isn't it?"

Hana answered with a shy nod.

Sombra grinned. "That's so corny! Are you _sure_ you're Deathwing?"

"Trust me, I'm haunted by the memories of that life."

"Well you _were_ kind of a gigantic prick."

"I know."

"But honestly – and I'm not just saying this because I have ulterior motives, even though you know I _do_ have ulterior motives – you really don't seem like a dragon to me. You seem like a human who was raised by a dragon and that's it."

"I used to be more dragon-like. Even in this life I ate humans and stole their stuff and destroyed their villages. It's only since I met Brigitte that I've been changing. Then I started having dreams when I hadn't before, and I feel all this sickness in my stomach whenever I think about my dragon life."

"I guess falling in love with a human can do that to some dragons.” She quickly straightened her posture. “Not me, though."

"Yeah." Hana rested her chin on her palm and sighed. "It was so sudden...I guess it was because I'm in love, but..."

"Hana?"

Hana turned at the sound of the voice. Behind her she found Brigitte leaning on one of the cavern walls. Her shoulders were slouched and her eyes were glassy, as though she were only partly freed from the grasp of slumber.

Immediately Hana climbed down from Sombra's giant paw. "Brigitte? Everything okay?"

Brigitte shook her head, as if trying to clear it. "Just...weird dreams. I can't get back to sleep. I wanted to make sure you were still here, and..."

Sombra politely angled her head away, though it was obvious by her swiveled ears that she was listening to every word. Hana was still not well-versed in the act of hugging, but she knew Brigitte was a fan of it, so she wrapped her arms around the other girl's waist and nestled her cheek into her chest. Brigitte went stiff, keeping her hands at her sides. Upon realizing Brigitte was not going to return the hug, Hana drew uncertainly away.

"What were you dreaming about?" she asked her.

"It was just...I don't know. I didn't have a good feeling about this woman you want to go see. At least one of the dreams was about that."

"You're worried about it?"

"I guess I am." She moved back in and rested her chin in Hana's hair. "I just don't know, Hana. I don't like this."

"I don't have any other options, Brigitte."

" _Satya_ would–"

"No. She wouldn't." Hana gritted her teeth and kicked at the dirt with her toe-claws. "She made me this way on purpose. So I could feel how she feels and hate my body like she does."

"What?" Brigitte's brows knitted together. "Hana, that sounds _really_ unlikely–"

A shiver ran down Hana's spine. It _didn't_ seem like something Satya would do, but something whispering in the back of her mind affirmed to her it was true. She couldn't trust Satya. Satya was the one who put her in this miserable situation in the first place. The root of all her suffering in this life.

The Destroyer had found some semblance of peace in death. He had found solace in the nothingness, a reprieve from the boiling rage and chaos that had consumed him in life. Then Satya brought him back. Satya trapped him in a body with an innocent human girl. And his madness was awakened once again.

"I think you need some sleep." Sombra yawned, spraying sparks from her open mouth. "I think _I_ need some sleep. This is the longest I've been awake in ages."

Hana assumed her dragon form. "You're right." Looking to Brigitte, she asked, "Do you wanna sleep on my belly? I know the cold, rocky floor isn't very comfortable for–"

Brigitte drew back from her. "N-no," she said quickly. "Could you – could you stay in your human form maybe?"

"Huh? Why?"

Brigitte's eyes flicked over her. In them Hana saw something she had never noticed in Brigitte before.

"Brigitte..." Hana bit her lip as she shifted back, resisting the urge to close the distance between them. "Are you... _scared_ of me?"

"I – I just...one of the nightmares..."

Hana waited for her to finish. Her chest tightened as she watched the girl she loved cower from her as if she were a monster. _I **am** a monster,_ she reminded herself.

"...I dreamed that you were killing and eating me,” she finally whispered. “It felt so real. It was terrifying."

" _Eating_ you?" Hana's eyes began to sting. "Brigitte, I know what I did before. But I would _never_ do that now! Not to you...!"

"I know. I know you wouldn't." Brigitte started back toward the passage that led to where she and Reinhardt had been resting. "Could you just…stay in your human form for now? Please?"

Hana nodded, her eyes full of sorrow. "...Okay."

"Thank you."

Brigitte set off at a long-legged stride, not waiting for Hana to keep up. Hana hung back a moment. Brigitte did not stop. She eventually disappeared back into the depths of the mountain.

A claw poked her lightly in the back. "You okay, pipsqueak?"

She squeezed her eyes shut to suppress any more tears. "Yeah. Fine." She did not turn to face the other dragoness.

"Wow, then you're definitely handling your girlfriend telling you she's afraid of you better than I would."

Hana turned slightly. "Jesse was never afraid of you?"

"Maybe at first, but I was never much of a killer, and I think that was pretty obvious. I just wanted the humans' cool electronics."

Hana stared down the passage to where Brigitte had retreated. Then she turned back to Sombra.

“Hey.” Sombra nudged a paw forward, the one that was not being used as a pillow by Jesse. "You wanna sleep here with us tonight?"

It was a tempting offer, but she couldn't accept it. "No. I need to be alone."

Sombra rolled her eyes. "Okay fine, go and be all dramatic. But I wouldn't sleep too close to the entrance. There's all sorts of weird creatures all lurking out th-"

Hana was transformed and taking off before Sombra could finish her warning.


	3. I would give my life to be...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I fell off with updating this for a few weeks - I finally got a full-time job AND a new girlfriend and so it's been very difficult to find time to work on my writing xP Anyway, I hope this lengthy chapter will be an acceptable reparation for the delay!

The only appropriate ear for a proud dragon's crying was the open sky. And so Hana lay sprawled out in the dirt of the withered, sun-starved forest beside the mountain, wailing to the stars.

"It's not fair!" She dug her claws into the dirt, lying on her side so that her tears seeped directly into the ground. "I never asked for this...I don't want Brigitte to be scared of me..." She squeezed her eyes shut and sucked in a few shaky breaths. "I'll never have a normal life! I wish I was dead!"

_"Oh, you poor, poor child."_

Hana startled bolt upright. A pair of warm, soft hands took hold of her face, angling Hana's stare up into the eyes of a blonde, blue-eyed human woman. Her lips were pursed as she beheld Hana, as though she pitied her.

Despite her humanity, or at least her human appearance, the woman gave off an aura of power that gave Hana a slight chill. Regardless, Hana sat up and allowed the woman to run her fingers over the scales of her cheeks.

"Look at you," the woman whispered, wiping the tears from Hana's eyes with a gentle finger. "Never have I seen a dragon cry."

Hana sniffed. "That's 'cause I'm not a dragon. Not really."

"No?"

"No. I'm just stuck with a dragon soul I don't want. All it does is make everyone hate me..." The sickness in her stomach she'd been feeling for the past few weeks was suddenly amplified. The only thing that slightly alleviated it was the soft touch of the woman before her. Hana's eyes drifted shut as she leaned her face into the woman's palms and relaxed her tense jaw muscles.

The woman massaged Hana's jowls, sore from clenching her teeth to fight back tears all night. "You poor thing. How did such a fate befall you?"

Hana looked up at her with doleful eyes. "Forbidden ritual."

"Ah. So someone cast black magic upon you."

"I guess so."

"You know," the woman purred, "I, too, am a practitioner of magic. But I would never act without the consent of all creatures involved. I value fairness in my dealings."

"Yeah, well apparently not everyone does." Hana lowered her head down onto her paws and sighed. "I loved her, so I looked past all that...but I really wish she hadn't done this to me..."

The woman knelt down beside her. "I could undo the effects of the ritual, you know."

"You could?"

"Soul-bindings may be a forbidden art, but they are not overly complicated. Likewise, reversing them is quite possible."

Two lifetimes of a draconic existence gave Hana a reasonable amount of wariness toward creatures offering her anything for free. Her eyes narrowed at the woman. "What do you want from me?"

The woman chuckled, a few dainty fingers settling on her lips. "Well I _did_ say I value fairness in my deals. I would be more than willing to untether that pesky dragon soul from your body for a fair price."

"And what would the price be?"

"You let me keep the soul."

Her immediate instinct was to agree – after all, she didn't want the soul anymore. But she quickly thought of the potential repercussions of giving Deathwing's soul away to a random creature. "The dragon soul is really powerful," she said. "I don't think that's a fair trade."

The woman quirked a brow, but one corner of her mouth curved upward. "Very well then. Make your offer."

"Well, why do you want my soul, for starters?"

"It is, as you said, very powerful. I'd like to utilize it to strengthen my own powers."

"And what will you do with stronger powers?"

"With greater power I can perform greater services for those in need. That is my goal, after all."

"Oh, you're trying to do good deeds for creatures?" Hana perked up at that. "My friends and I are doing that, too."

"Really? How coincidental!" The woman touched the tips of her fingers together. "Yes, I make deals with creatures so that I may gain greater ability to assist even more creatures."

"So you'd be using Deathwing's power for good...and I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore..." Hana ruminated on the offer. As she thought about it, her old greed began to creep up in her heart. "Well, I could use his soul for good, too. Convince me to trade it to you?"

The woman folded her hands in her lap as she drifted gracefully into a sitting position opposite Hana. "What would you wish of me, child?"

Hana's eyes were alight with avarice. "What can you give me?"

"You crave a human life with your human lover, correct?"

"How did you know–"

"Done."

"You can do that?"

"Of course. My power may not yet be limitless, but it is great."

"So a human life, with a human body? A human house in a human town?"

"Indeed."

"Okay, and I want my human friends to be safe. I can't really defend them without my dragon strength."

"They will be protected."

"Can you _promise_ that?"

The woman nodded.

"...Okay. Fine. Take this horrible soul off my hands, then." She stopped the woman in the middle of standing up. "But if you're double-crossing me my creator will find out, and she _won't_ be happy."

"Of course. I am a fair and rational woman. I do not intend to go back on my word." The woman's hands began to glow with a warm, golden light. "Now I need you to go to sleep. The process will be much easier that way."

The energy the woman gave off was warm and soothing. Hana stared, transfixed, at her glimmering palms. The light danced in front of her tired eyes, strained from a long night of sleepless crying. Her third eyelid closed, reducing the world to a soft blur, and eventually her eyes closed completely, shutting out all of the light.

"That's a good girl." A warm hand stroked her scales again. "You will never be tormented by that dragon soul again."

* * *

 

"Hey hon, it's time to get up."

A pair of soft lips pressed into the flesh of her cheek. With herculean effort Hana pulled her tired, sticky eyelids apart and struggled to focus on the human kneeling over her. Of course, it was Brigitte.

Hana pushed her away and grumbled something she herself could not identify.

"Okay, fine then." A blanket was dropped over her head.

"W-wait." Hana pulled the blanket off her face. "I was just having this really weird dream...I kinda wanted to see the end of it."

"Was it about me?" Brigitte sat down on Hana's pelvis. She was grinning her usual sunshine grin.

"You were in it..." They linked hands. "And just so you know, if you don't stop pushing on my bladder I'm gonna end up peeing on you."

That got Brigitte off her. "So what was the dream about?" She followed Hana to the tiny bathroom attached to their bedroom. Hana rubbed her eyes and grunted.

"How are you always so wide awake first thing in the morning?"

"'First thing'? It's nine A.M.!"

Hana stumbled into the bathroom and flicked at the light switch, missing it the first time. The mirror dutifully showed her her reflection, though the glass was foggy from Brigitte's shower. Hana noted with general apathy that her long brown hair was mussed and sticking up in places, and her eyes were hazy with leftover sleep.

"I dreamed I was a dragon," she murmured.

Brigitte rested her arms on top of Hana's head. "A dragon? Really?"

"Yeah. I was like..." A yawn distorted her words. "...really tough, and stuff."

"I'll bet." Brigitte kissed her hair. "Was I a dragon, too?"

"No. You were human."

"Aww."

"You were, like, a knight or something, though. You wore a suit of armor and carried a big mace around."

"Oh, well that's cool at least."

"But you weren't cool. You were a huge nerd. Like always."

"Wow, okay." Brigitte stormed out with a dramatic flip of her hair. "Hurry up and shower so we can get ready to go."

Hana did not remember where they were supposed to be going, and she didn't want to have to ask. So instead she just closed the door and tried once again to clear the sleepy haze from her mind.

* * *

 

The shower felt oddly foreign to her, even though she knew rationally she'd been living with Brigitte for over six months now. She ran her soaped-up hands over her smooth, pale flesh, and as she did she recalled her dream again. Her flesh had been dark grey and rock hard. Scaly. Her hands had been like tough gloves with long, deadly claws. _It felt so real._

She touched her soapy fingers to the patch of hair covering her sensitive area. _I didn't have body hair before._ She had hair under her arms as well, and a soft, downy lair on her legs and forearms. _Huh. I'm fuzzy._ It was kind of fun. She stroked the hair on her arm and marveled at it.

She had just flipped her hair over and started shampooing it when she began to hear something strange through the thin bathroom walls. It sounded like Brigitte, but it was muffled, like her mouth was blocked.

"Brig?" Hana stood back up and moved her hair out of her face. "Everything okay out there?"

The noise halted. "Oh yeah, yep! Everything's fine!"  Brigitte called back.

 _Hm._ With a shrug to herself Hana resumed her shower. Mere moments later she started hearing the murmuring again. She eventually tuned it out and focused solely on washing herself.

When she was done showering Hana struggled into a bra and pair of underwear. Both felt odd on her skin, but she knew she was supposed to be wearing them. _Geez, that dream really had some kinda impact on me...wait a minute._ She realized with a touch of embarrassment that she was trying to cover her tiny boobs with a 38D bra. _This is Brigitte's._

She tossed it back in the drawer and grabbed a much smaller one. It fit perfectly. _There we go._

As she was getting dressed she caught sight of a few pictures clipped to their dresser mirror. The first was a selfie with Hana squished into Brigitte's muscular embrace. Both of them were grinning. The second was of Brigitte with her mom, dad, and multiple older siblings. The picture beside that one was of Hana, her adoptive mother, and her recent stepmom. All of the photos seemed pulled out of time, like they could have taken place anywhere at any time. Hana could hardly remember them even being taken.

She ended up throwing on a pink tank top and some white shorts, fiddling with the fly for a bit before eventually getting it figured out. By the time she pushed open the bedroom door the apartment was filled with the scent of thick, buttery waffles. Hana licked her lips in anticipation.

Sure enough she found Brigitte flitting about their little kitchen-slash-dining-room, humming to herself. Hana eyed her as she pulled out a chair at their tiny, two-person dining table. "Jeez, Brig, what's got you so excited today?"

Brigitte waved her off. "Nothing, nothing. It's just a really nice day, isn't it?"

Hana glanced out the window. It _was_ nice and sunny out. Sadly it wasn't too farfetched to believe Brigitte really was just _that_ spunky in the morning.

Brigitte set two plates stacked with waffles down on the table. Her eyes lingered on its weathered wooden surface for a moment. Then she said, "We should look into getting a bigger table."

"Huh?" Hana lowered the syrup bottle she was drowning her waffles with. "Why?"

"I don't know." Brigitte sat down opposite her and folded her hands under her chin. "Just seems a little small."

"Huh. I think it's okay."

Brigitte dug into her breakfast like a starved animal. Hana nestled her chin into her palm and watched her with a small smile. _I really picked a good mate._

She paused at that thought. _...Mate?_

"So you should probably tell your parents we'll be a little late," Brigitte said through her mouthful. "Unless you can be ready to leave in the next five minutes."

"Is that a challenge?"

Brigitte smirked.

Within seconds they were tearing through their breakfast like it was an eating competition. Despite Hana's best efforts Brigitte had the advantage of being larger, and therefore having a bigger gullet to stuff with waffle. She was done in no time at all.

"The reigning champ maintains her crown." Brigitte burped proudly. Hana pouted, only spurring Brigitte on. "God, Hana, you're so freaking adorable."

"Nah, I'm fierce. Fearsome."

"Oh yeah. Big scary dragon. I forgot."

Hana grinned. Brigitte reached over and poked Hana's plate with her fork. "Now hurry up and finish your waffles, slowpoke."

* * *

 

Their little cottage was centered in a village in the middle of a forest. The next house over was occupied by a couple Hana and Brigitte were friendly with, despite the other couple being a bit on the odd side. That particular morning Sombra was outside reclining in a sunbathing chair. Her eyes were shielded by sunglasses, and her long purple nails were tapping away at a laptop settled on her stomach.

"Hey," Hana called out to her. Sombra stuck a hand up and gave the girls a finger wave. "Where's Jesse today?"

Sombra craned her neck to look back over her shoulder. Moments later her boyfriend emerged from the front door carrying two mixed drinks. He sat down beside her and handed her the fullest glass. With his free hand he gave Hana and Brigitte a wave as well.

"Seriously?" Hana said. "It's not even noon yet."

"It's noon somewhere," Sombra called back.

"Do you think Jesse even owns a shirt?" Brigitte whispered as they were walking away. Hana snickered.

"I mean, I've never seen him wear one."

"Knowing Sombra, she probably hides them."

Hana's mother and stepmother lived one town over from them. It was a short walk, and Hana enjoyed being outdoors. And that day was particularly beautiful – the sky was clear and sunny, and the air was pleasantly warm. Her soft human toes sank into the grass and tingled as it tickled their undersides. It was cool and damp with dew, refreshing in the warm sun.

"So it's a no-shoes kinda day, huh?" Brigitte nodded down at Hana's bare feet.

_Oh yeah. I forgot to put on shoes._

"Yeah," she decided to say. "It is."

Brigitte's smile grew. "I can get behind that."

The next thing Hana knew they were both barefoot. Hana broke out in a run, hoping to beat her girlfriend at _something_ \- but within mere moments Brigitte and her damned long legs were ahead of Hana. "Oh come on!" She felt a strange urge, a desire to change her body in some way. But the feeling was eased when Brigitte stopped, allowing Hana to dash ahead.

"Why'd you stop?" Hana turned back and puffed out her chest. "Finally accepted that you were gonna lose?" She realized Brigitte was staring at something down in the grass. Hana sidled up beside her. "What are you looking at?"

Silently Brigitte pointed at a blade of grass. Upon closer inspection Hana realized there was a large green mantis sitting perfectly still atop it. "Oh, cool!"

There was a ton of interesting wildlife out in the forests. Hana had never really appreciated it until she'd moved in with Brigitte, who was a lover of all creatures. Hana liked bugs in concept, but had rarely ever taken the time to seek them out.

"As a dragon I scared every living thing away from me," she murmured.

"Not me."

"You liked me, but you were scared of me too."

"I was?"

Hana nodded.

"Well okay, dragons are scary! You can't blame me."

"But I loved you. I would never have hurt you."

Brigitte shrugged. "I mean, I love you too, but I'm not sure I'd want to hook up with a giant fire-breathing lizard." She was smiling, but the smile faltered a little as she spoke. Perhaps it was when she saw the look of hurt cross Hana's face. "Why do you look so sad? You thinking about becoming a dragon?"

"No." Hana pawed at the dirt with one foot. "But I'd still be with you even if _you_ were a dragon."

Her smile dissipating, Brigitte studied her. "Dude, you're taking this so seriously. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She drew Hana into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry," she murmured, planting a kiss on Hana's forehead. "Maybe I'd still date you if you were a dragon."

Hana pressed her face into Brigitte's chest to conceal the grin that grew on her face. "That's weird, Brig."

Brigitte pushed her away. "Oh wow, okay. Were you just trying to get me to admit I'd date a lizard?"

They were both smiling then. Hana stood up on her tip-toes and gave Brigitte a light kiss on the lips. Brigitte planted her hands on either side of Hana's waist and drew her in for a longer kiss. Hana pushed her up against a tree trunk, where they both started giggling.

"Honestly, though," Brigitte said, drawing back momentarily, "there are definitely things I'd miss about you if you _were_ a dragon..."

"Oh yeah?" Hana smiled against Brigitte's mouth. "Like what?"

"Hmm...I don't know..." One hand drifted up Hana's stomach and then settled on her chest, giving her a little squeeze. The warmth of her thick palm spurred a purr of satisfaction from Hana. That part of her was so sensitive. She'd never realized just _how_ sensitive.

In that moment of distraction Brigitte went for her throat, biting down with her little human teeth. Hana sighed and let herself go limp in Brigitte's arms. It seemed nearly every part of her was sensitive.

"Plus," Brigitte murmured, "you're so little and cute the way you are. I can pick you right up." Proving her words, Brigitte swept Hana off her feet and held her bridal-style. Hana giggled and wrapped her arms around Brigitte's neck. "Should I carry you to your moms' house like this?"

"No, no..."

"You sure?"

"...You'd actually do it?"

She squealed as Brigitte set off running with Hana in her arms. "Off we go!"

* * *

 

"Why hello, dear Hana. Brigitte." Satya nodded at each of them in turn. "How are things going for the two of you?"

"Great!" Hana hugged Satya without even thinking twice about it. Satya seemed a bit surprised, but returned the hug just as warmly.

"Good to hear." Her eyes settled on Brigitte, and a tiny smile graced her lips. "Any important news?"

"Maybe." Brigitte winked. Satya's smile grew.

"Oh, wonderful. We shall have to catch up inside."

There was a distinct buzz in the air that Hana could detect but not interpret. She followed Satya inside the cottage. Once inside it she began to pick up voices – her younger siblings. They were running amuck through the house, as always. Hana stepped out of the way just as one of them rocketed by her, flying a toy plane through the air. Moments later she heard a crash and the simulated sound of an explosion.

"So how are you and Fareeha?" Brigitte asked as Satya led them into the living room. Immediately Hana claimed the couch, only allowing enough free space for Brigitte to join her.

Satya chuckled. "Tired."

"Well next time don't go having quintuplets." Hana stuck her tongue out at her mother. Satya feigned offense.

"Do not blame me. Blame Fareeha's overzealous eggs."

"Ew."

From the next room they heard a shriek. Moments later Fareeha crawled into the room, four of their kids clinging to her arms and legs. "Helppp..." The kids all giggled as Fareeha pretended they were too heavy to drag along. "Can't...go on...any farther..."

"Mama is wimpy!" The kids all piled on top of her and started smacking at her with their little hands. Fareeha pretended to cower.

"Ahh...I surrender..."

Brigitte got up off the couch and gently plucked two of the little devils off their mother. Immediately they started smacking Brigitte as well.

"Nice kids," Hana murmured.

"Thanks, Brigitte." Fareeha took the tots back from her. "If you all can't keep your little mitts to yourselves then nobody's having any ice cream tonight." With no other targets in reach the kids started hitting each other. Fareeha pulled them all apart. They went around her and continued beating on each other. "Hey!"

"Who wants to sit with Mummy?" Satya tapped a hand on her lap. The kids all looked at each other – then they raced to clamber onto her lap before the others could. Suddenly Satya was swarmed with the little monsters, pushing and yelling to get a spot.

"Good grief." Fareeha wiped sweat from her forehead as Brigitte chuckled. "You better hope yours doesn't split into five."

Hana perked up at that. Fareeha tensed, then glanced at Brigitte.

Brigitte grinned sheepishly. "...I didn't tell her yet."

"Oh. Oh no. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Guess now's as good a time as any." Brigitte turned to Hana, showing her that beautiful sunshine smile of hers. "So you know how we thought the procedure didn't take?"

Hana's eyes widened. "You're–"

Brigitte nodded. "I took a test the other day, and then again this morning to be sure. Both were positive."

"Oh my God...Brig!" Hana leaped into her arms. "Why didn't you tell me the first time?!?"

Brigitte combed her fingers through Hana's hair. "I didn't want to get your hopes up in case it was a false positive."

"It took so long...I thought for sure..." Hana buried her face in Brigitte's shirt. Tears leaked from her eyes. "I can't believe this! We're gonna be Moms?!"

Brigitte nodded into her hair. As she did Hana felt Brigitte's own tears drip down onto her head.

Satya and Fareeha were both smiling. Hana pulled back after a moment. "Wait a minute – you told them before you told me, didn't you?"

Brigitte massaged the back of her neck. "I was excited!"

"You two are gonna make terrible parents," Fareeha said. "You think _our_ kids are spoiled?"

Hana smiled through her tears. With a sniffle she said "It's true. We are gonna spoil our kid so bad."

Brigitte nodded. " _So_ bad."

"So, you know what that means?" Fareeha wrapped an arm around each of them. "It's my turn to be the cool grandma that the kids like more than their own parents."

Brigitte and Hana exchanged a look. Hana shook her head. "Nah. You're no Ana."

"Aww."

Hana drew back a step and studied Brigitte's stomach. "So...it's in there right now."

Brigitte settled a hand on it. "Yep."

"Are you scared?"

"Nah. I think I'm pretty tough. One little fetus isn't gonna do me in. ...As long as it doesn't split into quintuplets."

Hana leaned down and gave her belly a little kiss. "I can't wait to meet you!"

"Hana?"

Hana looked up at Brigitte. "Huh?"

Brigitte cupped Hana's face with her hands. "Come on, wake up. Please."

Hana made a face. "Brig what are you talking about? I'm awake."

Brigitte looked to Satya and Fareeha, who were now also studying her with concern on their faces. "Has some sort of curse been laid upon her?" The voice out of Fareeha's mouth was not hers, but it was familiar. A loud, booming voice that Hana intrinsically trusted.

"Hellooo?" Satya waved a hand in front of her face. The air displaced seemed too great for her normal-sized human hand. Hana blinked reflexively. "I told you not to sleep outside, pipsqueak. Now look at you."

"I – I don't understand what you're talking about?" Hana glanced at each of them in turn. "Why are you acting weird all of a...sudden..."

A pair of warm hands settled on her shoulders. They glowed with a radiant golden energy. That energy spread in pulses through her body. Her eyes began to drift shut as the pleasant warmth enveloped her. _You seem tired. I think you need more rest._

Before Hana could even stop to consider what had taken hold of her, she was closing her eyes and curling up in the imaginary warm embrace surrounding her.

* * *

 

"Hana, what's up?"

Hana lifted her chin from her palm. Brigitte was studying her uncertainly.

"Oh, n-nothing. Just...spacing out, I guess."

"How is it that somehow _you're_ the one with pregnancy brain?"

Hana looked down at Brigitte's stomach. It was bulging slightly out of her tank top.

"I forgot you were pregnant." She realized it was a bizarre thing to say, but Brigitte just laughed.

"Not sure how you could forget when I've been eating everything in the house."

"Speaking of which, dinner'll be ready soon." Fareeha was seating five small human children with long black hair and deep brown skin. The table had grown much larger than Hana remembered. It was now more like a banquet table than a table for two.

"Good, good, I cannot wait any longer!" Reinhardt leaned back in his chair and chuckled.

Elsewhere in the cottage a door swung open. Hana perked up. Sure enough, moments later a beautiful human with long, smooth black hair that reflected the light like a gemstone, flawless dark skin, and glittering golden eyes strode into the room. She wore a simple but pretty blue dress, one that Hana could have sworn was part of her hoard somewhere. _Wait – my hoard?_

Once in the room Satya lifted an arm to reveal that she was holding a dead, bloody deer. "I hope this will suffice for everyone." With that she dropped the carcass onto the middle of the dining room table.

"Thank God." Brigitte pulled her chair in. "I'm _starving._ "

All of the humans dug in, ripping the carcass apart with their bare hands. Hana looked down at her own hands, pale and pink. Her nails were, of course, short and human. Her entire body was flesh-covered, devoid of scales and, in fact, devoid of clothing as well.

"What's the matter?" Brigitte turned to Hana, her face and hands smeared with blood. "This is how dragons eat."

Hana's eyes flicked over the humans at the table. Every one of them was soaked in blood.

"What is wrong, Deathwing?" Satya rested a hand on the table. It left a bloody print behind. "Have you forgotten how to be a dragon?"

"Deathwing's a bad dragon," one of the humanlings teased. Fareeha laughed at her.

"Is that true?" Brigitte eyed her uncertainly. "Have you forgotten how to be a dragon, Deathwing?"

Hana clambered out of her chair. Everyone was staring at her then. She backed up until she bumped against something boiling hot and leaking smoke. She turned slowly.

There, staring her down with his pupil-less yellow eyes, was her surrendered dragon soul. The Destroyer. Deathwing.

"Hana," the dragon spoke in a strangely feminine voice, "can you hear me?"

It was not Deathwing's voice, nor was it one Hana had ever heard before. "Yes?" She pulled a slight face. "Why do you sound so weird?"

The dragon's lips were pulled back slightly, seeming almost amused. "I'm speaking to you from the waking world. You've been asleep for a number of weeks, and your body seems to have undergone some massive changes."

Hana studied Not-Deathwing with confusion. "So who are you?"

"My name is Moira. I'm a friend of Jesse and Sombra."

 _So this is Moira?_ "Sombra said you could make me human again."

"It would seem my services in that regard are no longer required."

"What? Why?" Hana cast a glance down at herself. "If I'm asleep then doesn't that mean this is a dream? I'm really still a dragon, aren't I?"

"No, because you foolishly traded your dragon soul to a witch of the wilds. That witch is now using it to terrorize the human population."

"Wh...what?" She remembered the witch, though only vaguely. "She said she was gonna use it to help creatures...?"

With Deathwing's giant face Moira leveled her with a heavy-lidded stare. "Surely you didn't believe that a woman appearing out of the forest offering to fulfill your greatest wishes in exchange for your power had anyone's best intentions in mind but her own?"

"I – I thought...I mean I...just wanted to get rid of my dragon soul so badly..."

"So badly that you did not consider any potential repercussions of your actions." Deathwing studied his claws. "In truth I can hardly blame you. I probably would have done the same thing."

"Really?"

"Well yes, but that's because I abandoned the confines of morality ages ago." A small chuckle accompanied her words. She resumed her serious disposition again, however, when she said, "So, you are in an enchanted slumber right now, and I am working on a method of waking you. This witch's power is great – but science always prevails in the end."

"So what should I do in the meantime?" Hana asked. "Try to wake myself up somehow?"

"Just try to maintain as much awareness as possible. Even if I'm not speaking to you I'll still be working."

"Okay."

With that the vision of Deathwing disappeared. Suddenly everyone reappeared in the dining room, but they were not the same as before. The table was gone, and in its place the shredded deer carcass was splayed out on the floor. Nine dragons, four adults and five dragonlings, were lying contentedly about, their jaws stained with fresh blood. Hana was still human, and her flesh was still utterly bare. She uncertainly approached a muscular, chestnut-scaled dragoness who was picking at her teeth with a bone. "Brigitte?"

The dragoness lifted her head and looked Hana over. Her long, serpentine tongue swished over her teeth as she took in the entirety of Hana's tiny body.

"This is just a dream," Hana murmured to herself. "So by that logic I guess nothing I do here really matters, right?"

Brigitte was beautiful as a dragon. Hana's heart began to pound as the dragoness let Hana into her embrace. "God, Brigitte..." She settled herself against Brigitte's scales. "I was an idiot...I should never have trusted some random witch with Deathwing's soul. What was I thinking?!"

Brigitte gave her a soft lick on the face. "You know what I would say if this was actually me, Hana."

Hana sighed. "You'd forgive me, probably. You're too soft like that."

"Well, I'd definitely scold you first. _Someone_ needs to keep you and Reinhardt in check."

Hana leaned on her. "I felt so angry about everything. Angry and sick. I was desperate to get rid of it..." She squeezed her eyes shut, recalling how foreign the voice in her head had felt when it stirred hatred of Satya in her heart. _Was that witch_ _targeting me all this time?_

She didn't hate Satya. She couldn't. She held some anger against her, yes, and it was a subject she would like to confront her about someday. But she could never hate her.

"Deathwing could destroy the world." Hana pressed her face into the Brigitte her mind had conjured. Like the real version, dream-Brigitte was nothing but receptive, bathing Hana with her tongue while keeping her clutched tight to her gigantic body. "I unleashed that on everyone. All because I was too weak and selfish to want to keep him trapped inside me any longer."

"I wish you had come to me." Satya was sitting on the opposite side of the room, her tail flicking as she studied Hana with disapproving eyes. "You know I would have helped you."

"I know, I know!" Hana turned away from her. "You think I don't feel guilty about that?"

She did not turn back to Satya, even when she heard heavy footsteps approach her. Then she felt a burst of hot breath as Satya nuzzled her with her snout. Weirdly her scales felt cold, as though she were being touched by icy fingers.

"You have been asleep for a long time now, Hana. It's time for you to awaken and resolve what you have caused."

"All I do is cause problems when I'm awake, though. Maybe the world would be better off with me sleeping forever."

"You don't have much choice in the matter."

An invisible hand began to pat her face, far from lovingly. It was almost more like a slap. Hana sputtered and rubbed her eyes. Suddenly there was a giant, terrifying human woman looming over her. Her long, bony fingers hovered near either side of Hana's face, armed with claws to rival a dragon's. One blue eye and one red eye fixed on her with frightening interest. When the woman opened her mouth to sneer down at her, Hana noticed her canine teeth were long and jagged, not like any human's she'd seen before.

"See?" Moira threw a smug look back over her shoulder. "I told you _science_ would triumph in the end."

"If you can call it science..." Jesse nudged an empty vial with the toe of his boot.

"Doesn't matter what you call it. It _worked._ " Moira grabbed Hana by the wrist and pulled her up into a sitting position. Hana noticed she was still lacking her scales, just like in the dream. _The Destroyer's soul really_ is _gone, then._ It was as if he had never been there at all.

Her mouth also tasted horrible, acidic and sour. Moira's concoction, probably.

She blinked, allowing her human eyes to adjust to her surroundings. She was resting on one of the blankets from the van, but it was spread out on the floor of Sombra's cave – and the cave seemed so much darker then. _Right. I have crappy human vision now._ The light of a torch drew her eyes to the humans standing just off to her side. Brigitte and Reinhardt. Brigitte seemed like she was holding herself back from grabbing Hana. Instead the girl simply draped a smaller blanket around Hana's shoulders and said, "Nice to finally have you back."

Sombra must have been in another part of the cave, for Hana did not see her. She did, however, catch sight of an unfamiliar human girl, young of age, standing behind Moira. Her skin was deathly pale, a sharp contrast to the stark black and blood red of the clothes she wore. Her shoulders were drawn tight, and her eyes were trained on the ground. In her pale fingers she clutched a satchel full of bottles and vials.

"Oww." Hana rubbed her lower back. "The ground is so uncomfortable on skin..."

Moira's sneer was then cast upon her. "Why don't you go lie in some nice soft grass, then?"

"Um, okay? Maybe I will." Hana got to her feet, trying to ignore how strange the ground felt on her bare, fleshy feet. The moment she got up Brigitte took her hand and drew her close.

"Hana," she said quietly, "you can't."

"What do you mean I can't? I can do whatever I want." Her human senses were dull, but even with her lacking sense of smell she could pick up the scent of something burning in the distance. "What's that smoky smell?"

The other humans hung back as Hana clambered toward the faint fresh air she could feel on her human skin. It felt like it had been so long since she'd seen the sun. Though she was no longer cold-blooded, her body still craved its warmth.

She took off wandering through the dark caverns with virtually no idea where she was going. Eventually she noticed footsteps behind her. It did not take long for her to realize it was Brigitte.

"Hana..." With her long legs Brigitte caught up to her in no time at all. "C'mon, I know you're stubborn as all hell, but will you listen to me for once?"

A distant clap of thunder caught Hana's ears. She scrambled toward the noise, climbing up the ruggedly-carved pathway that led into and out of the heart of the mountain. The wind grew stronger as she turned a corner, and she began to feel the mist of rain settle into her pores. But it was not getting any lighter in the caverns. "Where is it? Where's the opening?"

"Hana." Brigitte clapped a hand down on her shoulder, finally stopping her. When Hana turned to face her, Brigitte pointed up.

Part of the cave had been carved out above them, carrying wind and rain down into the cavern. The sky was so dark and dismal that no sunlight was brought down with it.

"What's with the giant hole in the roof?" Hana tried to gauge how high it was – much too high to climb through, especially with the smooth, slippery rock walls leading up to it. "Where's the entrance?"

"That's...kind of the thing." Brigitte stared up at the sky alongside Hana. "It moves."

"What?"

Folding her arms, Brigitte continued to watch the sky. After a long minute of Hana staring upward, the cavern ceiling suddenly began to reform and close itself up. "Whoa, what's going on??"

Within moments it was as if there had never been an opening at all. "Yeah," Brigitte said, "turns out giving near-limitless power to a magical being who was already powerful wasn't the best for the world's stability. Things have been going haywire ever since."

Hana looked to her uncertainly. "What else?"

Brigitte pulled her arm out of one strap of the backpack she was carrying, letting it swing around in front of her. The bag rustled. Brigitte unzipped it and reached inside with both hands.

" _No! I don't want to be seen like this! It's embarrassing!"_

A small, squeaky voice preceded Brigitte lifting a bearded-dragon-sized purple dragon from out of the bag. With shock Hana realized it was Sombra. The dragoness clawed at Brigitte's chest in an attempt to free herself and return to the backpack. Instead Brigitte simply shifted her in her arms and held her like a baby.

"Apparently dragons are really sensitive to magic?" As Brigitte spoke Sombra sighed loudly and thumped her chin down on Brigitte's forearm.

"This is all _your_ fault, pipsqueak." She huffed out a shower of tiny sparks. "You just _had_ to go sell your soul to some magic demon, huh?"

In spite of the circumstances, Hana could not contain a snicker. Sombra's ears flattened against her head. "Sorry, sorry," Hana said as she cleared her throat and tried to regain a serious demeanor, "I know it's not funny. You're just so _little._ "

"You think I don't know that, you monkey?" Sombra hissed. "Dragons are attuned to the magic of this world. When one creature's hogging it all up there's less for us to use. That's what lets us grow so huge and still function as an animal. Without magic we're just..."

"Lizards."

Sombra grumbled to herself.

"Does that mean every dragon on earth is a tiny little lizard now?" Hana's thoughts immediately went to Satya. Sure she'd have Fareeha to look out for her, but still...

"Honestly, that's kind of the least of the world's problems." As Brigitte was speaking the ground beneath their feet began to rumble. Sombra leapt out of her arms and skittered away. Brigitte grabbed Hana and pulled her backward. Moments later the ground opened up into a gaping crater – and the cloudy grey sky was now beneath them.

Hana was halfway through the portal when Brigitte seized her by the arm. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm going after that witch! I need to get Deathwing's soul away from her!"

"Hana, she'll kill you! There's no way you can possibly–"

With one stubborn yank Hana pulled herself free and then plunged into the impossible clouds beneath their feet. Immediately she was gripped by a feeling of both flying and falling simultaneously – her body felt as though it was moving downward, but the air was getting thinner, as if she were ascending higher into the sky.

When she finally hit something solid it was the rocky path outside Sombra's mountain. Blinking and rubbing her head, Hana glanced about. Everything was shrouded in storm clouds, as before, but _un_ like before all the greenery of the mountain was now charred and withered, as if the land had been torched.

Something landed behind her with a heavy _thump._ Hana turned to find Brigitte rising up to her full height a stretch away. "You followed me?!"

"Obviously. I'm here, aren't I?" Brigitte brushed some of the dirt off her armor and came to stand beside Hana. Without the pervasive sexual aggression of her dragon soul fueling her, Hana, for the first time, was able to look at Brigitte as one human woman beholding another. She was not just appealing as an unsown womb. She was beautiful and kind of heart. A prized treasure Hana would cherish and guard with her life, dragon or not.

"I love you," Hana said.

Normally so stoic, those words managed to pierce Brigitte's unfazed demeanor. A red blush crept up the other girl's cheeks as she quickly averted her eyes.

"I, uh...wow. Thanks." She pushed her long, tousled hair out of her face and ran her fingers through it. "I love you too, Hana."

"So..." Hana wrapped the blanket a little tighter around her otherwise-naked body. "You humans get cold, huh."

"Right. Before we confront anything we're getting you some clothes that'll fit you."

"Where?"

"Wherever we can find any."

"Okay, so then let's–"

The sound of a cleared throat behind them drew their attention. Through the stormy mists emerged the young teenage girl Hana had seen inside the cave. In her pale, outstretched hands she held a pile of neatly-folded cloth.

"Is that for me?" Hana hesitantly approached her. For some reason this girl unsettled her greatly; she could not get any sort of visible read of the girl's emotional state at all. Her face gave no cues, and her body language was stiff and proper, rigidly trained. The girl did not stir at all when Hana took the clothes out of her hands.

"These are my clothes." The girl's voice was equally lacking in any sort of emotion. "Mademoiselle O'Deorain told me to give them to you."

Despite clearly being very young, the girl was taller than Hana. Consequently, her clothes were much too long for Hana's short limbs. "So, what," Hana asked as she nevertheless slipped into the ruffled white shirt and silky black pants, rolling them up so they did not trail under her feet, "you're like Moira's servant or something?"

"No. She is just my caretaker."

"Are you human?"

The girl tilted her head, though her expression remained neutral. "Why do you ask?"

"You act weird. Not like any human I've ever met."

The girl simply stared at her with her eerie yellow eyes. "I used to be."

The nosy side of Hana wanted to inquire further, but the prickling of her skin at the girl's icy stare made her reconsider. Maybe some questions were better left unanswered.

"O...kay. Well, uh, thanks for the clothes." She cast a quick glance over at Brigitte, who made eye contact just long enough to convey a mutual uncertainty. "Um. Bye."

Hana and Brigitte began trekking down the mountain, but Hana still felt that unnatural chill down the back of her neck. At one point she turned around and startled – the girl was following them, so close behind that she practically disappeared inside Brigitte's shadow.

"Um, you don't need to follow us," Hana said.

The girl continued to stare right into Hana's eyes. "I want to."

Hana raised an eyebrow. "...Why?"

"I want to travel without Mademoiselle."

"Does she know you're going?" Brigitte asked.

"She does not care where I go."

Hana's immediate reaction was, of course, to refuse the strange girl. But when she caught sight of Brigitte's expression, that sweet, stupid compassion in her eyes, she knew what the answer was going to end up being.

"Fine," Hana sighed. "Come on, then."

The girl seemed to vanish right into the background as they continued onward.


	4. Human

Moira's assistant did not speak during their travel. Regardless, her presence alone stilted any real conversation between Hana and Brigitte. The two exchanged glances here and there, but did not say much of anything.

"You're awfully quiet," Brigitte eventually said, not to Hana, but to Moira's assistant.

The girl, who had previously been staring down at the ground, lifted her chin a bit. "Is that not what you prefer?"

"Well, Hana and I are usually kind of talkative. We can get pretty loud, actually – especially when Reinhardt's joining in the conversation."

"You both are quiet now."

"This is an unusual situation. There's a lot going on."

"Mademoiselle says silence is golden. We only speak if there is something imperative to be said."

"How did you end up in Moira's care, anyway?" Hana's curiosity could not be contained any longer. She looked the strange girl up and down. "What's your name, even?"

"I ran away from home many years ago. I had met Moira once before, so I went to her." The girl slid her golden eyes from Hana to Brigitte, then back again. "Why?"

"Because I'm nosy?" Hana laughed, hoping the girl would react in kind. Instead she simply blinked and continued to stare at Hana.

"My name is Amélie," the girl said after a while.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Amélie." Every bit of Brigitte was visibly straining to maintain her usual polite, friendly disposition. If anyone could break through a completely apathetic front, it was Brigitte – but even she had her limits.

Apparently determined to test those limits, Amélie said, "Why?"

Brigitte's smile faltered. "Why what?"

"Why is it nice to meet me?"

"It's just something humans say." Hana rolled her eyes. "Even _I_ know that."

"No one ever says that to me. Most people ignore me."

 Brigitte folded her arms and frowned. "Well that's not right."

"I don't care. I don't feel anything anyway."

Brigitte's step slowed. "What do you mean you don't feel anything?"

"Mademoiselle O'Deorain uses me to test her potions. She wanted to see if she could make a creature that was devoid of all emotion."

"What??" Hana stared at her in disbelief. "She took away your emotions?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't mind. I was nothing but miserable before, anyway."

"So you just...feel nothing?"

Amélie shrugged again.

"That's so weird. I've never met a creature who couldn't feel before." Hana's first instinct was to sniff her and see if she had an interesting scent, but her human nose was too weak to pick up much of anything. "What's it like?"

Amélie's pace did not falter – true to her claim, nothing said seemed to affect her. "It isn't bad," she said. "Peaceful."

In a weird way Hana could understand the appeal. Her emotions had gotten her into more messes than she could count. And if greed counted as an emotion then emotions had technically gotten her killed.

"How old are you, Amélie?" Brigitte asked.

"I am...thirteen." The answer came after a pause, as if she had to think about it.

"Are you serious? Thirteen-year-olds are _supposed_ to be full of emotions. It's normal and healthy to work through them."

"Well I am not normal. Or healthy, probably."

Brigitte eventually dropped the subject. Instead they continued down the mountain in silence.

Hana had expected the storm clouds to be concealing sunlight, the way it had been when they had arrived at the mountain. Instead she was stunned to discover that there didn't seem to _be_ a sun anymore. The sky was just a blank void of grey – no sun, no moon, no clouds. "What's up with the sky?" she asked, trying to act as casual as possible about the strangeness.

"I don't know," Brigitte replied. "It's just been like this."

"Mademoiselle says the witch withholds everything from humanity so humanity will rely solely on her to provide. Like a goddess."

When they came upon their crusading van, it was nearly unrecognizable. The surrounding trees had taken hold of it in their roots, one tree growing right up and over the roof of it. "The van!" Hana stared in disbelief at the nightmarish sight. The tree's branches reached out like claws, warding off anyone who may attempt to reclaim its prize.

 Brigitte nodded solemnly. "It's been like that for weeks now. There's no getting to it."

"We can't just torch it?" Hana sucked in a breath, then realized with one lukewarm human breath that she had no fire within her anymore.

"It doesn't burn. I already tried to–"

Amélie uncorked a vial on her belt. Striding over to the ominous trees, she took the vial and tipped some of its contents onto the van. The strange purple liquid inside splashed out and ran down the sides of the van. Seemingly nothing came of it at first – then the trees suddenly recoiled, shrinking back from the site of the spilled concoction. They drew back enough for the van to be exposed almost entirely.

"Whoa." Brigitte cautiously approached the van. "Is that one of Moira's potions?"

"Actually, this is one I have been working on myself." Amélie corked the vial back up and dropped it back inside the pouch on her belt.

"Wow, you're making your own potions? That's really cool!"

Amélie did not respond.

"...So should we get in the van, then?" Hana yanked one of the doors open. Strings of tree sap stretched from the door to the frame of the van, so thick that Hana had to exert a bit of effort to break the thick strands and get the door open. As soon as she opened it Amélie cut in front of her and settled herself in the back of the van.

"Sit in the passenger seat." Brigitte pulled the driver side door open as best she could and squeezed herself inside. Hana had never ridden up front in the van. Regardless, she did as she was instructed, and sat down in the front seat like a human would.

Amélie seemed to be holding one of the van's rear doors open for some reason. When Hana turned to see why, she shut it and turned away, saying nothing. _Huh. She's so weird._

She wondered if it was the best idea to trust the strange child. Ultimately, she supposed, they had few allies in this world, and against such a powerful foe they surely needed all the help they could gather.

Brigitte had to start the van a few times to get it going, but eventually it growled to life. Hana held on as Brigitte fought with the sticky ground and branches to free the van and take off into the bizarre, changed world.

* * *

 

"Are you two married?"

Amélie's question caught Hana off-guard. The girl was watching them from the back seat with that off-putting blank stare. There was clearly life beneath that deadened surface.

"No," Hana replied uncertainly, "we're not."

"Why not?"

"Because...I don't know? We haven't even known each other that long."

"Okay." Amélie did not push the subject beyond that, but the idea wouldn't leave Hana's mind. _I'm human now. We **could** get married._ She had to push the thought aside, however, when she reminded herself that at the moment, the fate of the world was a little more important.

Hana was not extremely familiar with human roadways, but their crusading before all this had certainly not been so winding and confusing. "Do you know where we're going?" she asked Brigitte.

Brigitte's fingers gripped the steering wheel. "Yes."

The rural dirt road wrapped around a bunch of the same gargantuan trees that had ensnared the van. It felt like the same few loops and turns over and over, and it was making Hana a little nauseous. "Are we actually getting anywhere?"

"I-I think so. We have to be, right?"

"We have taken this same path a number of times already," Amélie spoke up from behind them. "You can see the van's tire tracks in the dirt."

Hana and Brigitte glanced at each other, then down at the road before them. It was true. The tire tracks exactly matched those of the van's.

"What?" Brigitte stopped and turned back to Amélie. "Why didn't you say something before??"

"You are not going to defeat the witch. It is as pointless as driving in circles."

"If you think it's pointless then why are you here?"

Amélie shrugged. "I just wanted to get out for a little while."

 _Is she serious? This kid is infuriating!_ Hana could see the tension in Brigitte's jaw, but Brigitte did not snap at the girl. Instead she just sighed. "Okay, we need to figure out a smarter way to travel in this craziness."

"Kinda wish I could fly now," Hana murmured.

"Okay, let's think about it like this," Brigitte continued. Her tone implied she was making things up as she went along. "Where do you think this witch is most likely to be?"

"I mean, probably in that gigantic spire rising up into the sky."

Hana and Brigitte both turned. For the first time, Hana noticed Sombra nestled into Hana's usual blanket, practically lost in the size of it. "Sombra?" Hana was too surprised to be annoyed about her blanket theft. "How did you get in here?"

"This one opened the door for me." She pointed a claw at Amélie. "Nice kid. Unlike you jerks who left me behind."

"I didn't know you wanted to come! And what about Jesse?"

"What about Jesse? He's a big boy. He can handle himself." Sombra reared up on her hind legs and fluttered her tiny wings. "You know, one good thing about being this small is that I have so much _energy_ now! I can actually _do_ stuff!" Her boasting was interrupted by Amélie as the girl reached over and gave Sombra a tentative pat on the head. "Whoa, hey, what are you doing?"

Amélie withdrew her hand.

"...Well I didn't say you had to stop." Sombra lowered her head onto her paws as Amélie resumed petting her.

"What spire did you mean?" Brigitte asked as she started the van back up again.

"You can't see it in this awful forest. But I could see it from the mountaintop."

"We can't get out of these woods," Hana said. "It's like a maze."

"Really?" Sombra tossed off the blanket. "'Cause I mean...I could just fly above the trees and guide you guys."

Hana looked to Brigitte. "You'd do that for us?" Brigitte asked.

"Not for you. This witch turned me into a house pet! I want to destroy her as much as you guys do."

"How do you plan on 'destroying' her, exactly?" Amélie asked.

Hana hesitated. She'd been trying to think up a concrete plan since they left, but so far nothing had really seemed plausible.

"I mean, I could probably knock her around a little," Brigitte said. "I'm pretty mad she took advantage of Hana while she was vulnerable."

"Brute force will be useless against the witch," Amélie replied. "She will likely kill you. That, or perhaps enslave you for her own purposes."

"Part of our agreement was that she wouldn't hurt any of my human friends," Hana said. "If she's true to her word..."

"Hey, wait a minute." Sombra sat up, indignant. "Why only your _human_ friends?"

"I didn't think the dragons needed protection! I don't know, I wasn't thinking about it..."

"Psh, whatever. I'm not your friend anyway." She leaned into Amélie as the girl scritched her under the chin. "Mm, that's a good spot. Can't normally scratch there when I'm at my full size."

Hana stared down at her human hands. _Deathwing will definitely have transformed the witch's body. She's got to be at least part dragon by now._

She looked up again to find Brigitte watching her.

"I know Deathwing better than any other living creature," Hana murmured. "I think I could negotiate with him."

"Negotiate? You think that'd work?"

"I don't know, but it's worth a try. Right?"

"I was thinking we should just poison the witch." Amélie rolled a tiny vial around in her palm. It was filled with a noxious-looking purple liquid.

"You think she's stupid?" Sombra flicked her tail dismissively. "She's not gonna give us an opportunity to _poison_ her."

"Mhm, and we don't know that that would even work, anyway," Brigitte said.

"It is very potent," Amélie murmured.

"I'm sure it is." Brigitte gave Hana a strange look before resuming speaking to Amélie. "But I think it'd probably be better if Hana and I figured out something out, since we're the ones who are familiar with Deathwing."

Amélie folded her arms. "I am versed in the arcane. You two are just fools in armor."

Sombra cracked up at that. Amélie actually smirked at the reaction.

We're not fools," Hana huffed. "We're _Crusaders._ "

That got Sombra laughing even harder. She tipped over onto her back and kicked her tiny legs in the air.

"Can a 'Crusader' banish a creature to another dimension?" Amélie asked. In spite of her neutral face and tone she somehow still managed to convey a hint of teenage sass. "Moira and I have traveled between the worlds. I have seen the same creatures take many different forms. In some worlds they are mighty and powerful. In others they are weak and pathetic. I hold a perspective few other creatures ever could."

"How do you travel between worlds?" Hana asked, her indignance overpowered by her curiosity.

"Moira's abilities are great. We have transcended the barriers of space and time."

"Can _you_ send creatures to other dimensions?" Brigitte chimed in. "Or does Moira do it?"

Amélie picked Sombra up and set her on her lap. With her long, spidery fingers she stroked Sombra's shining purple scales. Sombra didn't seem to like it too much, but she allowed it.

"I am learning," Amélie said.

"Have you actually done it?"

"No."

"So that's useless, then." Hana sighed. "That witch was already powerful. With Deathwing, too, I don't know what we could do to stop them..."

"Your electricity is interesting to me." Amélie withdrew her hand from Sombra's back. A few sparks jumped from her fingers. "I could create something useful with that."

"Yeah, you're not gonna be harvesting my–" Amélie wrapped a hand around Sombra's throat and squeezed it. Instinctively a bolt of electricity arced from Sombra's mouth. It soaked into Amélie's other hand, making her arm twitch and jump.

"Wow." Amélie touched her fingertips to her chest. "That made my heart beat faster."

"If I was any bigger it would have stopped your heart."

"It hardly beats, anyway."

"Do you ever say anything normal?"

"This is normal. For me."

Sombra cast a heavy-lidded stare over at Hana and Brigitte. Hana shrugged.

"So Sombra," Brigitte said, trying to get them back on track, "think you could fly up there like you said? We could really use a navigator."

"Sure, sure." Sombra hopped off Amélie's lap and onto the armrest between Hana and Brigitte. She held a paw out in Hana's direction.

"Huh?" Brigitte looked over at them. "What are you–"

With a sigh Hana dug her hand into her backpack and came out with a handful of gold coins. Sombra inspected each one carefully, then climbed into the back and tucked them into the folds of the blanket. "Okay, I'll go."

Amélie pushed the back door open. Sombra spread her tiny wings and took off into the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of an interlude chapter before the big next chapter. Thanks for sticking with the story in spite of the slowed updates! It's nearly finished now.


	5. Wishmaster

What had once been a human city was now nothing but a wasteland. Scrap and debris littered the ground all around the base of the mighty spire, a mound of earth that had been twisted and stretched and now grew all the way up into the clouds. 

They parked the van in the wreckage of a building nearby, just away from the mountain. Brigitte kept close to Hana as they crept toward the mountain's base. "Stay behind me," she whispered at one point. Hana gave her a light slap on the arm. 

"I'll be fine." 

Amélie was writing something down on a piece of scrap paper pulled from her pocket. Hana tried to lean over and read it, but it was in a language she did not understand. Sombra was perched on Amélie's shoulder like a parrot. She watched Hana watch Amélie, but did not get involved. 

"So how do we climb this?" Brigitte settled her hands on her hips and gazed up at the seemingly-endless spire. Unlike a normal mountain it did not have a path upward. It was perfectly vertical and smooth all over. 

Sombra reached out and rested her claws on its surface. Surprisingly, they sank right in. "What the hell?!" She pulled her paw away. "Eww, it feels like skin!" 

"What?" Brigitte laid her hand upon it. "Ugh, it does!" She pulled away as quickly as Sombra. "What the heck kind of..." 

Suddenly they heard a hissing sound. Steam poured from the surface of the spire. Before it stood Amélie with her poison vial, now half-empty. The concoction was apparently potent enough to burn right through the strange, fleshy substance. It gaped open then, and they realized that the inside of the spire was hollow. 

"I guess it's a good thing we brought you," Brigitte conceded. 

"It is still a hopeless endeavor."  

"We'll see about that." 

They pushed their way inside the bizarre spire. Its walls contracted around them, constricting their movement until Sombra shocked the fleshy walls into retreating. "This is so  _weird_ ," Hana whispered. The interior of the spire was boiling hot, and the air was chokingly humid. As a dragon Hana had been accustomed to that, but as a human it was hard to bear.  

They crawled through the narrow tunnel Amélie had created, with Hana trying to ignore how uncomfortable it felt to have her human hands slide along the damp, warm flesh surrounding her. 

"Jeez, is this what it's like for mammals when they get dumped out instead of laid in a nice little egg?" Sombra was still clinging to Amélie, avoiding contact with the walls at all costs. 

"Did you really have to make that comparison?" Brigitte was visibly cringing. "I was already thinking it..." 

"Of course you were." 

Amélie smirked again. It seemed nothing could faze the girl but Sombra's biting sense of humor.  

Finally, after Hana was about ready to retch from the disgustingness of the flesh-spire, they emerged into its hollow core. The interior resembled a volcano, all rock and magma pooling on either side of them. The magma and fire produced the only light that guided them. As Hana's eyes adjusted, her breath caught in her throat. 

Hundreds of cages dangled from rusty chains all the way up the walls. Each contained a weak, withered creature. They moaned and cried out as the group passed by them.  

"Who  _are_  all these creatures?" Hana paused outside a cage with a shriveled, white-haired man lying curled up inside of it. Like Jesse, he had an arm made of metal, and a metal leg, too. His flesh was pulled taut to his bones, and his eyes were focused on everything and nothing. He shivered and mumbled to himself, seeming not even to notice her or the others. 

"She has taken their souls," Amélie uttered. "There is nothing left to these creatures but their mortal shells." 

"Quite an impressive collection, is it not?" 

Something emerged from the magma behind them - a creature unlike any Hana had ever seen. Her upper half was human-shaped, though it was as massive as the rest of her body, with impossibly long golden hair spilling down over her shoulders and otherwise-bare chest. Her arms were wiry, and her fingers ended in sickle-like claws. The pale flesh of her hips tapered gradually into ivory scales that guarded the lower half of her body, serpentine in shape, so long she could have easily coiled the lot of them up like a snake and smothered them all. Her claws, wings, and serrated tail tip were all golden, reflecting the light from the surrounding magma.  

When she opened her mouth to speak, two viper-like fangs glinted.  

"You..." Hana tried to steady herself, to mask her fear. This creature was  _massive._  She could have crushed Sombra even at Sombra's normal size. "What did you do to the world??" 

"I have maintained my end of the bargain." The woman settled her coils down before Hana and Brigitte. Sombra and Amélie stayed back a bit. "Your human friends are unharmed, you live as a human now, and I am using the power of Deathwing to assist the creatures of the world. Why, without me the  _sun_  would not rise!" The witch-dragon pointed her slender ivory tail upward. Suddenly a light from somewhere high above shined down on them.  

"You took the sun away in the first place!"  

The witch swished her tail. The light faded once again. 

"I never said  _how_  I would be helping them." 

"That's – that's selfish!" 

The witch laughed. "Says the one who sold the world for her own personal desires. I was simply a willing buyer." 

Brigitte took her hand and squeezed it. Hana bit her lip and forced herself to look the witch in the eyes. 

" _I_  was chosen to be Deathwing's vessel. Like it or not...my creator knew I could handle it. She knew I wouldn’t end up like  _you_." 

The witch's tail snaked outward. With its very tip she tickled the underside of Hana's chin. "Deathwing had no interest in being controlled by a weak heart like yours. I will care for him. I will care for this whole wretched world." 

"Deathwing isn't powerful enough to take on the whole world. Even with the two of you together it would never be enough. That's why he died the first time." 

"Silly girl." The witch touched her claws to her chest and laughed again. "Have you not noticed I hold the world in my palms already?" 

"Only one world." 

The witch shifted her focus to Amélie. Of course the girl was not fazed by the gigantic dragoness looming before her. She simply stared back at the witch, her eyelids heavy with apparent boredom. She held up a vial filled with barely-contained purple smoke.  

The witch was immediately intrigued. "And what is that?" 

Amélie popped the cork out of the vial. The smoke immediately poured out and over the rim, spilling over Amélie's hands and flooding the ground with an impossible amount of purple smog. It collected in one spot on the floor, and then, from the inky murk, a tall, sharp figure rose up and took form. 

" _Excellent_  work, Amélie." The smoke receded across the sickly pale skin of Amélie's "caretaker" as she took her familiar shape. "Perhaps with this power we will be able to find a cure for our...condition." Moira studied her fingers as the tips dripped like melting flesh and dissolved into smoke when it hit the ground. She squeezed her hand into a fist. Slowly the flesh solidified. 

The witch attempted a look of equal amusement, though it was clear she was unsure what was going on. "No living creature shall harness my power." 

Moira reached outward. A stream of dark energy began to flow from a gruesome hole in her palm. "How fortunate, then, that we are not living." 

Amélie watched with disinterest as the witch gasped and drew back. It was too late – Moira's arm was glowing with a dark energy. The power of Deathwing – or at least a portion of it. 

"You-!" The witch raised her arms. Suddenly the world was spinning – the floor disappeared and then reappeared above them, throwing Hana and Brigitte upside down onto the hard rock floor. When Hana regained her bearings, she realized Moira and the witch were not touching the ground. The witch's wings kept her aloft, but Moira was simply drifting, her long, angular feet pointed toward the ground but not touching it. Amélie was right behind her. Hana quickly realized the young girl was not affected by the shifting ground, either. 

"I really don't think getting this lady involved was a good idea," Brigitte whispered. 

Moira's hand was glowing a miasmic purple. She clenched her long, clawed fingers into a tight fist again, as if attempting to contain the draconic power she had absorbed. "Give that back to me!" The witch coiled her tail around the other woman and started squeezing her. The coils of flesh squished together as Moira disappeared into wisps of smoke. 

Hana's eyes darted back and forth as they attempted to locate Moira. In the process she noticed Amélie standing off to the side of the fight, holding Sombra again. Sombra's static energy was crackling up Amélie's arms as the dragoness watched the fight with interest. 

"Neither of these creatures will handle Deathwing's power well," Hana mumbled. "They're either gonna take over the world or destroy it." 

"We need to do something." Brigitte stepped forward and raised her mace. "Hey! Clearly neither of you can handle Deathwing's power. Just give it back to us and we'll figure out what to do with it." 

Laughter echoed around them. Moira regained her solid form in the middle of the cavern, her "normal" hand tangled into her hair. "Amélie and I have our plans." She parted her fingers so that her bright red eye was visible between them. "Isn't that right, dear?" 

Hana's heart jumped as Amélie smashed one of her vials on the rocks below. The same inky black tendrils Moira seemed to be composed of began to reach out of the puddle on the ground, like tentacles. "Perfect." Moira came to rest in middle of it, wearing a mad grin. "Your 'magic' is just a weak substitute for  _true_ –" 

Amélie tossed Sombra in the air. With a cackle Sombra unloaded what must have been her entire body's worth of energy in the form of a massive bolt of lightning. It struck the spilled potion with a deafening crack. Moments later, a dozen tentacles sparking with electricity whipped out and grabbed not only Moira and the witch, but Hana and Brigitte as well. Hana gasped as painful electricity surged through her body and paralyzed her, just like the first time she'd crossed Sombra. With all her metal armor Brigitte was completely paralyzed by the strength of the shock as well. 

Moira attempted to dissolve herself out of it, but the tendrils held fast to her. "Amélie, what are you doing? Fix this immediately!" 

The witch was not stopped, but she was hindered enough that Amélie had time to take hold of the mysterious tendrils and pull them toward herself. Sombra's power coursed through the girl then, and the dragoness herself sat like a gargoyle on Amélie's shoulder. 

"What are you trying to do?!" Moira grabbed for her. Amélie stepped out of her reach. "You stupid girl! You can't –  _argh!_ " The tentacles suddenly pulled in different directions, tearing Moira apart. She dissolved into smoke, and did not reform.  

Amélie reached an open palm outward and drew Moira's smoky essence into it. It sank into her pale flesh and darkened it, taking on the purple-blue hue of a body long dead. 

"Did you just kill her?" Sombra asked. Her tone implied more amusement than horror. 

"She was not alive to begin with. Just a scientific anomaly." Amélie wriggled the fingers of her changed hand. "Both of us are." 

The witch was watching her with interest. "So you have betrayed your mentor," she asked. "Why?" 

"I am bored." With her newly-gained power Amélie opened her palm and began to draw the same unnatural purple energy from the witch's swollen dragon body. 

"Stop that!" The witch pointed a clawed finger at her. The air around Amélie quivered and glowed, but she was not affected. The witch's normally unfazed demeanor cracked a little at that. "What  _are_  you??" 

"My name is Amélie." She responded as if it were the most casual, small talk conversation.  

The witch swung her gigantic tail at her. With a yawn Amélie held out her hand. Several tendrils of blackness shot out of a hole in her palm, similar to Moira's, and grabbed the witch's tail mid-air. Before the witch could withdraw Amélie pulled back, draining more power out of her. The witch cast her magic upon Amélie, igniting the air with magic and fire, but still Amélie was unaffected. Hana could only watch as the terrifying young child absorbed everything thrown at her, her eyes beginning to glow a moonlight yellow.  

"You are poorly bonded to the dragon soul. He does not want to be with you." 

With the combined power of Sombra, Moira, and the essence stolen from Deathwing, Amélie was able to keep enough of a hold on the woman that the witch's dragon features began to wither away. With a shriek the witch collapsed to the ground, writhing as her body shrank and her power waned. 

"Yeah, how does it feel, huh?" Sombra crowed. "Getting shrunk back down to a tiny little nothing?" She straightened up and kneaded her claws into Amélie's shoulder. "I think we should kill her." 

Hana didn't even realize she had hairs on her neck now until they prickled at the charge of power in the air. The Destroyer soul was no longer in the possession of the woman lying weak and helpless on the cold stone ground. No, it had a new owner now. 

Amélie's golden eyes glowed in the dim light. The shock tentacles that had grabbed hold of Hana and Brigitte slowly shrank away and disappeared. Brigitte's body was still twitching – it seemed she still could not move. Hana, perhaps from years of living in the harshest of conditions, was able to shake it off a little easier. She locked eyes with her mate for a moment before pulling herself uncertainly to her feet. 

"Wait!" The witch held a hand out as Amélie approached her. "We can work together, Deathwing! I can make you even stronger..." 

Amélie glanced at Sombra on her shoulder. "What do you think?" 

Sombra snorted. "You know what I think." 

"Please. We can make a trade." Pale and human-sized on the floor before them, the witch was anything but intimidating now. Not that Amélie likely would have cared, anyway. "Your caretaker mistreated you. Used you. I can take you on as my equal. I can teach you my ways." 

Amélie stared down at her. "Hmm. Okay." 

"What??" Sombra and Hana both exclaimed. "Amélie, no." Sombra dug her forepaws into Amélie's scalp. "You can't trust her." 

Amélie tilted her head. "Hmm. That is true. Should I kill her, then?" 

"No!" The witch scrambled to her feet. Despite Amélie's young age, she was long and lean. She and the witch were equals in height, leaving no room for the witch to bluff. "I will show you right now. I can show you everything I could give you..." She opened her hands. A weak, flickering ball of golden energy manifested in her palms. "See? I still have my power!" 

Amélie stroked her chin. Then she looked to Hana. "What do you think?" 

 _She wants_ ** _my_** _opinion?_  

The old Hana wouldn't have hesitated. But the new Hana had a tendency to be  _too_  soft, it seemed – she was easily used. This old witch had already taken advantage of that once. 

"Hana..." 

Hana turned at Brigitte's voice. Brigitte was staring up at her, one elbow slightly propping her up. Immediately Hana knelt down to her. "You okay, Brig?" 

With Hana's help Brigitte managed to sit up. "Yeah, I'm okay." She took Hana's hands and gave them a little squeeze. 

"I don't know what to do," Hana whispered. "Do we kill this witch?" 

Brigitte looked past Hana, at the pathetic, groveling woman before them. "I don't know, Hana. Do you think she deserves to die?" 

Hana swallowed. The answer Brigitte would want to hear from Hana was pretty obvious, but was it the best choice? Was being merciful always better? 

Amélie grabbed the witch with her veiny, deadened hand. The witch stared her down, unflinching. 

"I don't think you should kill her," Hana blurted. "Violence is never the best solution for anything." 

"Are you kidding me?" Sombra threw a paw out in the witch's direction. "She wants to enslave all life on earth!" 

"I know, but..." Hana glanced to Brigitte. Brigitte was just watching her, arms folded. 

The witch grinned, revealing her sharp, perfect white teeth. "So anyone who might stand in my way is too soft to oppose me. That's all I needed to know." The woman's skin began to glow a blinding white. It caught Amélie off guard long enough for the witch to escape from her grasp. Her body dissolved into pure light, and with a lingering cackle she disappeared into the earth. 

Sombra slowly turned and leveled Hana with a glare. Hana bit her lip. 

"Oops." 

Two strong arms engulfed her in a bear hug from behind. Hana allowed her tense body to relax a little in Brigitte's embrace. "That might not have been the best choice in this case," Brigitte whispered in her ear, "but that was huge for you. Is it weird to say I'm proud?" 

Hana mustered a tiny smile. "Thanks. I just hope that witch sulks for a while and doesn't come back. I'm kinda worried, and now that Deathwing is..." Reminding herself of what had just happened, Hana shifted her attention to Amélie. The girl was idly scratching one arm. The skin she scratched was rough and scaly in patches. 

"Why did you take the dragon soul?" Hana asked her.  

Amélie paused her scratching to study her with those empty yellow eyes. "Nobody else had any good use for it, it seemed." 

"Deathwing will take over your body and mind. He's really powerful." 

Amélie shrugged. "We are not too concerned about it." 

Whips of thick, purple-black energy shot out from her back. Sombra jumped down as it took form, spidery fingers clamping down on Amélie's shoulders. Within moments they had become real and solid, long purple claws on pale, bony white flesh. 

Hana gaped as Moira emerged like a hideous butterfly from Amélie's back. Her hands remained settled on Amélie's small shoulders and, as usual, Amélie did not seem affected by that. 

"Flawless execution. You are learning faster than I expected, Amélie." She emerged fully from the girl's back then, stepping her long, pointed feet down onto the stone floor. Amélie simply nodded in reply. 

Brigitte and Hana just stared at them. Apparently neither had any clue what to say. 

"I am itchy," Amélie said. "And warm." 

"You'll need to be groomed to keep your skin from getting too dry while it changes." Hana broke through her stunned silence to speak up. "Otherwise you'll itch like crazy." 

"You can bathe when we get home," Moira said. "I'm not going to be  _grooming_  you." 

"She'll need a dragon tongue, or something rough like that to slough off all the old scales as she grows." 

"She can scrub herself down with a rough towel. Come now, Amélie. I'm dying to begin monitoring your changes." 

Amélie looked up at her, then over at the others. "If I am going to become a dragon, should I not stay and learn how?" 

"You're in the care of one of the finest minds of a generation. I'm sure we can figure it out." Moira wrapped her claws around Amélie's thin wrist. "Now come along." 

Amélie stared at Sombra. Sombra stared back, her tail slowly dragging back and forth against the stones. 

"I want to stay," Amélie said. 

"What do you mean you  _want_  to? You don't have any 'wants'. Wanting is an emotion."  

Amélie hesitated, which seemed to spur Moira on further. "My treatment hasn't worn off, has it?" She bent and searched Amélie's eyes. "Because I can mix up another batch and administer it again if you think it isn't working." 

"No, Mademoiselle." Amélie kept her eyes on the ground. "I am still fine." 

"There's no way a kid dragon's gonna do well being raised by a...not-dragon. Whatever you are." Sombra padded over to them. "Why don't you let her stay here? Jesse and I can look after her until she's comfortable."  

"Just because you've put yourself in a position to never have children doesn't mean you can steal my apprentices as substitute." 

"I don't want kids. Why would I?"  

"It is pointless to discuss this," Amélie said. She was looking at Sombra. "You would not know how to take care of a creature like me." 

Sombra's tail swished. "...Okay. Fine." 

Amélie let Moira lead her away. As she was being pulled along she paused in front of Hana and Brigitte. 

"It was nice to meet you," she said. 

"Yeah – yeah, same." Brigitte reached an uncertain hand out to her, presumably to shake. Amélie just stared at it. Eventually Brigitte lowered it again. "...Will you come visit?" 

"Sure, sure." Moira was all but dragging Amélie then. "Now come! I don't want to miss a moment of recorded observation." 

Amélie sighed as Moira uncorked a bottle of foul-smelling liquid and poured it over her own hands. While her caretaker was busy she lifted her hand and gave Hana, Brigitte, and Sombra a small wave. 

Moira slashed her claws down the nearest wall. The stain left by the chemicals under her nails spread on the wall, eating it away to leave a strange opening. The next thing Hana knew Moira had pulled Amélie through the gap. Just like that, they were gone. 

"I can't help but feel like that was a huge mistake," Hana mumbled. 

"Oh..." Brigitte waved her hand. "I'm sure it'll be...fine..." 

The sound of claws scratching stone drew their attention. Sombra had grown. She wasn't anywhere near her normal size yet, but she about rivaled a large dog now. 

"Huh." Hana studied her. "All the magic the witch hoarded must be coming back." Even as she said so she noticed the walls around them were beginning to melt.  _Hopefully everything goes back to normal soon._  

Sombra flexed her wings. "To be honest, I kind of liked being small. Maybe not  _that_ small, but..." 

"I'm still adjusting to my changes." Hana glanced down at her own hands.  _This is forever now._  Deathwing's soul had been stolen by a pair of universe-jumping sentient science experiments. It was gone. He was gone. 

Brigitte's arm wrapped around Hana's waist as the other girl drew her in close. "You gonna be okay?" 

She had been holding it together all right, but as soon as Brigitte gave her an outlet Hana's strength dissolved. She buried her face in Brigitte's armor and let the tears spill down her cheeks. She wasn't really sad about losing Deathwing, but it was a drastic change regardless, and it took its toll. 

Brigitte comforted her for what felt like an eternity. Sombra hung around in the meanwhile, not saying anything but seeming unwilling to leave.  

"You want to visit Satya soon?" Brigitte whispered at one point. 

Hana sniffled.  _Did_  she? Satya would be furious when she found out what had transpired. But as it stood now Satya did not even know if Hana was still alive. She deserved that much, at least. 

"Yeah," she mumbled. "Let's visit her soon." 

"'Kay." Brigitte patted her on the back. "Now come on. Let's go join back up with Reinhardt and Jesse." 


	6. Living the Dream

The mountain still looked exactly the same, but it was like a different world to Hana now. The rushing river it was situated in had once made her feel safe and protected. Now, without wings, she could not even get to the mountain. Brigitte had suggested swimming, but Hana, loath as she was to admit it, could never take on those currents in her untrained human body.

Hana knelt at the river's edge and gazed up at the impossibly high mountaintop. The mud ground into the knees of Amélie's borrowed pants, adding to the dirt, stains, and rips they had already accrued over the course of the journey home. Though she was physically human, Hana still felt like an outsider. Like she was cheating somehow. That was the reason she had not picked out any new clothes of her own, despite Brigitte's prodding. She still felt like any day now she was going to wake up and be back in her old, miserable life.

"I can't even roar anymore." She threw her head back and let loose a pithy little cry – not a roar at all. No way was it loud enough for Satya to hear. It barely even echoed.

Brigitte stood beside her, silent as the pathetic little echoes died off. Then she said, "You want me to yodel for her?"

Hana looked up. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, it's...nevermind. I was joking." She scratched her head. "Although I could probably try it. All that screaming at concerts had to be good for something."

" _Satya!_ " Hana shouted again. " _Satya!!_ "

Again silence fell over the mountain. Hana lowered her head and sighed.

Then, moments later, they heard something.

The leathery flap of dragon wings.

A rush of air heralded Satya bursting through the clouds overhead. The moment her eyes locked with Hana's she changed her angle, dove down and landed right in front of her. "Hana!"

In spite of everything, both of their first reactions were to run to the other. Satya swept her up in her giant forepaws and immediately started licking her. "What has happened to you?"

Hana curled up in the dragoness' embrace. "Don't be mad?"

That drew Satya's attention. She stiffened a little. "What did you do?"

"I'm so sorry, Satya." Tears began to pool in her delicate human eyes. "I was stupid. I traded the soul away for stuff I wanted."

Satya's eyes went wide. "You – Hana, you did _what?_ "

"I know, I know!" Hana cringed. "I keep doing stupid stuff like this. I failed as a Crusader. The whole world was almost destroyed because of me..."

Satya watched her for a long moment, as if thinking of something to say. Eventually she drew in a large breath and said, "You may have made a grave mistake, Hana, but it was I who failed you first. You never asked to be Deathwing's vessel. I just wanted you to be strong."

Hana laid her cheek against Satya's smooth scales. "Sometimes I wonder what my parents would think of me if they ever saw me again. I mean, they're probably dead by now, but..."

"They are." Satya edged away from Hana, putting some space between them. "I know what I told you in the past, Hana, but I did not simply find you as an unattended infant."

Hana studied Satya's face, from her familiar orange scales to her intense yellow eyes. "You killed them, didn't you?"

"It was in my younger years, when I was trying to be as aggressive and sadistic as my siblings. I tore through an entire village that day. Two humans I devoured were guarding something that I assumed had to be a valuable treasure. And it _was_...just not the sort of treasure I'd envisioned."

Hana rose up on her tiptoes and gave Satya a lick on the cheek. Satya nuzzled her chin against the top of Hana's head.

"When I found you I knew I could not kill you. You were such a tender, tiny little thing, all swaddled up in blankets. I could feel the love your parents had bestowed upon you. To them, you were the greatest treasure they would ever own."

Hana bit her lip. She had always sort of suspected Satya had killed her parents. "Why did you summon Deathwing into me, though?"

"I wanted you to be strong. You were so small and weak the way you were, and I had no idea how to raise a human. Changing you into a dragon was the only way I could ensure I would not accidentally kill you." She stroked Hana's hair, clearly taking in her human form. "I am sorry I did not allow you a choice. But I am fairly certain you would have died without it."

"You're probably right, honestly."

"So...where did the soul end up?" Satya's tone was gentle, but strained. "Because in the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous."

"Yeah, I know. It's with a couple of creatures from another dimension. I had originally traded it to a witch for a human life, but then she went and sucked all the magic out of the world and hoarded it for herself. So I–"

" _You_ were responsible for that?" Satya balked. "Everything that happened...I was shrunken down to the size of a lizard!"

"I was afraid of that. It happened to Sombra, too, and she wasn't too–"

"Who is Sombra?"

"Oh, a dragon friend of mine."

"You've been making new friends?"

"Yeah! Her mate's nice, too. They let us stay in her cave overnight, and we spent the whole night just talking and hanging out."

"Hana..." Satya studied her with wide eyes. "I am proud of you! And here you thought your social skills were lacking."

"Heh, yeah." Hana felt herself blush a little. "It's not really that hard when you're not consumed by insatiable greed all the time. Um, unfortunately it _did_ lead to a conversation about being a dragon, and how Sombra felt about it versus how I felt about it, and I realized that I really didn't want to be one anymore. I'm way more human on the inside."

Satya exhaled, then nodded slowly. "It hurts me to hear that, but I understand. And you _are_ human on the inside. You always have been. And I am not surprised a creature with wicked intentions preyed on you. I am sorry, Hana."

"So you're not mad at me for almost plunging the world into eternal chaos? And then letting two creatures with undefined motives steal Deathwing off to another universe?"

Satya tensed her jaw. "Well, what do you want me to say about it? 'That was a bad decision?' I can't help but feel you already understand that."

"I do."

"Should further consequences arise from it, I expect you will take responsibility and face them?"

Hana nodded. "I don't ever want anyone to be in danger because of me again."

"Good." Satya's stoic demeanor melted away as she grabbed Hana back up in her paws and licked her some more. "Oh, I am so happy to see you again. And to see that you have made such progress in growing as a person."

"Happy to see you too– _gack_ –" The force of Satya's embrace choked her weak human body. With a sheepish chuckle Satya eased her grip.

"I forget how vulnerable you are now."

"I'll toughen her up." For the first time Brigitte spoke up. She laughed, but it was clear her voice still carried a lot of nervousness around Satya. Satya did not laugh, but she touched her hands together and gave a soft nod in Brigitte's direction.

"I do trust you, Brigitte. You have not done wrong by us yet."

Brigitte straightened her spine. "Um, thank you, ma'am. I try."

"So where are Fareeha and the little monsters?" Hana asked. "Were they affected by the crazy world magic?"

"Fareeha was the only one unaffected by it. The little ones were very sick. I do not think their bodies could hold themselves together without magic. And I..." She rubbed the spines that jutted from the back of her head. "I was suddenly very, very small. Fareeha could hold me between her thumb and forefinger."

"Oh man, you were _that_ tiny?" It only made sense, considering how Sombra, who was normally the size of a small town, had shrunken down to the size of a cat. "What did you do??"

Her golden eyes swept the ground. "Well it obviously wasn't my proudest few days...Fareeha had to catch us dinner with her feeble little human hands–er, no offense to you, Hana–"

Hana shrugged.

"–and then she had to cut my share into tiny little pieces before I could swallow it. Eventually I ended up just snacking on insects instead. Far from my preference..." Her upper lip curled in disgust, revealing her fangs on one side.

"Aw jeez, Satya, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you guys through all this."

Satya held out a palm. "Stop apologizing. It will not happen again, and that is the important thing." She then fixed Hana with a wary stare. "It _won't_ happen again, correct?"

"N-no. Never."

"Excellent. So would you girls like me to take you to the cave? You look weary."

"Um, actually I think we're gonna just keep going." Hana looked to Brigitte, who nodded.

"Going? Going where?"

"Well, I mean, my whole point of this was to have a normal life with Brigitte." Hana took Brigitte's meaty hand in her own. Brigitte smiled, though she was breathing shallowly, clearly still nervous around Satya.

"Oh. ...Of course." Satya tapped her claws together. "That only makes sense. So you will be finding a human town to settle into?"

"Yeah! I want to be a part of her world."

Brigitte blushed a little, kicking at the dirt with one boot.

"Right. Perfectly understandable." Satya looked Hana over with an unreadable expression. "So then...I will not see you again."

"Wait, I never said that. I'll still visit you and Fareeha."

At that Satya brightened. "Ah, well, if you would _like_ to..."

"I'd love to. You're family to me, Satya. You know that!"

"I suppose so. I just thought...perhaps..."

Hana rose up on her tiptoes. With a tiny smile she gave Satya a big, wet lick on the cheek. Satya pulled her in for another hug, burying her face into Hana's hair and murmuring against her scalp.

"I will miss you. But I am proud you are striking out on your own."

"Eh, you won't miss me that much. I was kind of a jerk." Hana grinned.

"All right, true. You did probably shave a few decades off my life span all told."

"If you think I was bad with you, you should have seen how I treated _Fareeha._ Especially the first time we met..." She snickered to herself, remembering how she'd made such a show out of scaring Fareeha. The poor knight was shaking in her armor by the time Satya had shown up to put a stop to it.

"Oh, I remember. You were a bit of a demon back then."

"But you still loved me."

"Well of course. You were _my_ demon." Drawing back a bit, she took Hana's cheeks in her claws and said, "Just so you know, I would gladly have undone the soul-bonding myself had you asked me."

"Told you," Brigitte murmured.

"Yeah, yeah, I learned my lesson." Hana pulled away from Satya. With a dramatic flip of her hair she strutted over to Brigitte. "Now come on, let's go do human stuff."

Brigitte smirked. "Human stuff?"

"Let's get married!"

Brigitte's face flushed bright red. "Uh, s-sure?"

"Married??" The moment Satya responded Hana started running away. She dragged Brigitte along with her, the two of them laughing as they took off.

"I expect an invitation at the very least!" Satya called after them.

"Okay! Bye Satya!"

She cast one last glance behind her. Satya was watching them hurry off with a tiny smile.

"So..." Brigitte huffed as they ran. "You really want to get married?"

Hana grinned.

* * *

 

_Several months later_

Everyone gathered together for the special event. Hana and Brigitte had spent months preparing – well, Brigitte had done most of the planning, but Hana had decorated and supplied the gold for food and fancy things.

"Ah-ah-ah! No peeking!" Reinhardt blocked Hana's eyes with one gigantic hand. Apparently he had spotted her trying to sneak a glimpse into Brigitte's bedroom.

"But I wanna see her."

"You will see her soon enough, young Hana." He nudged her toward the guest bedroom that had become her temporary room at the Lindhölm house. "You yourself still have to get dressed!"

"That's true." She hurried off down the hall. The moment she opened the bedroom door she was greeted by Satya, who had retreated to the room after holding her human form for the majority of the day. She was stretched out on the rug by the bed, her eyes closed in a light sleep.

"Hey." Hana winced as Satya sat up and gave her a lick on the cheek with her boiling tongue. Her skin had become so unaccustomed to intense heat. "I need to get dressed!"

"Ah, of course." Satya opened the closet and carefully retrieved a jewel-encrusted white dress on a hanger. "You are going to look beautiful, dear Hana."

Hana shed her casual clothes and, with Satya's assistance, starting working her way into the dress. At one point her head got stuck somewhere inside. After a few seconds of struggling she felt Satya's human-shaped hands assist in righting her. Finally she found her way, and gasped as she burst out the dress' neck hole. "Jeez, clothes are a pain."

"I think you may have torn it." Satya held two split pieces of the fabric up behind Hana's shoulders.

"No, it...uh..." She made an up and down gesture with one hand. "I forget the word."

"Oh! It has one of these things." Sayta grabbed hold of a part of the dress lower on her back. "Fareeha always calls it a 'zip her'."

"Oh yeah, that's what Brigitte said! Do you know how to zip her?"

"I...think so." There was a faint noise as Satya zipped her up. "There we are."

Hana went up to the mirror and examined herself. Sometimes she still had trouble believing this was her. It had been nearly a year since she'd given up her dragon life, but sometimes she still feared she was only dreaming, that she would eventually wake up to find she had just been lost in another year-long dragon's slumber.

Nothing was "official" about their wedding. Humans loved paper, rules and regulations. Brigitte had told her humans usually paid money to get a "license" to say they were married. Of course Hana had no papers or anything. She might have, as an infant, but there wasn't any way for her to track that information down now. She was still trying to find her way in the human world, with all its little quirks and formalities.

Every day she was thankful she hadn't had to lose Satya to do that.

"Do I look weird?" she asked.

Satya frowned from behind her. "No. Why would you?"

"I don't know. I mean, I _look_ human, but..."

The house shook as something crashed outside. In a second Hana and Satya were both at the nearest window.

A gigantic violet eye blinked in at them.

"Hey, you made it!" Hana pushed the window open. "Hope none of our neighbors mind."

"I just had to see you all frilled up like a dweeb." Sombra backed up a little, revealing her grin. "Can't believe you're actually doing this."

"We waited over a year to make sure we really wanted to do it. Isn't that good enough?"

"I don't care how long you waited. You still look like a dork." She reached a giant paw through the window and, with one claw, tousled Hana's neatly-brushed hair. "Ooh, look at me! I'm a ~human~ now! I put shampoo on all my body hairs!"

"Wait, you're supposed to shampoo _all_ of them??" Hana looked to Satya, who could offer only a shrug in response. "I didn't know that! Man, being a mammal is hard!"

"You know you're supposed to sniff her butt too, right?"

"What??"

"Now that is _definitely_ not true." Satya folded her arms and scoffed. "Fareeha surely would have informed me of that."

Sombra's laughter said everything.

"Good thing we're holding the ceremony inside," Hana muttered. That killed Sombra's laughter.

"Wait, you are?"

"Oh yeah, you didn't know that? We changed it at the last minute. It's supposed to rain."

With narrowed eyes Sombra craned her long neck up at the sunny sky. It hadn't rained in ages. "You're full of shit. And if you're not then I'm just gonna knock a wall down anyway. I came a long way to see you make a fool of yourself."

"She is proud of you," Satya said.

"Pfft, yeah right." Sombra flicked her giant tail. "I don't care about that kind of stuff. Stupid...human...stuff."

"So you flew alllll the way here _just_ to see how 'stupid' it is. Gotcha." Hana smirked. "We'll be heading outside soon."

"Good. Can't make fun of you from out here."

Hana shut the window on her. Sombra said something through the glass. Hana shut the curtains as well.

"Did you want to...?" Satya held out the bouquet of flowers she and Hana had hoarded from the forest.

"Oh, yeah. I think that'll look really nice." She sat down on the bed. Satya sat beside her and began tearing the stems off one by one. She fed the remaining bits gingerly through Hana's hair, tying the shortened stems in knots around clumps of her hair.

"I am so proud of you, Hana." Satya gave her a light kiss on the head. "In spite of everything, you are taking hold of the life you desire."

Hana felt her cheeks pinken. "Thanks. I don't hold anything against you, if you're worried about that."

Satya did not respond.

"I don't," she repeated.

"...Thank you."

* * *

 

They didn't have live music like in some of the videos Brigitte had been watching about weddings, so Brigitte had music come out of an electric noise box instead. It was set up on a lawn chair beside the makeshift wooden platform Brigitte had hammered together for them to stand on while they were doing their marrying thing.

Torbjörn and Reinhardt were sitting in fold-out chairs arranged in front of the stage. Reinhardt was grinning like a big kid. Torbjörn looked less than thrilled, but he was there, and that meant a lot to Brigitte and Hana both.

Brigitte was not outside yet. Hana glanced around the yard, keeping the silly "veil" of her dress out of her face as she did so. Sombra had her head and forelegs in the yard – the rest of her body was stretched down the street. Hana almost didn't notice Jesse sitting against the scales on top of Sombra's head. She only noticed him after he gave her a wave.

"So what do I do again?" Hana slipped over to Fareeha, who was tending to the toddlers at a picnic table. "I'm so nervous..."

"You think _I_ know?" Fareeha handed the little monsters some sippy cups. "I got kicked out of human civilization. I don't have any tips for weddings."

"What about your parents? What was their wedding like?"

"Non-existent."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"You're nervous?" Sombra's voice boomed behind her, drawing everyone's attention. Hana's face instantly flushed. "You had the soul of a mad tyrant dragon inside you for nineteen years and _this_ is what you're nervous about?"

Hana shrugged and turned away. She wished Brigitte were by her side at that moment. She would help her through her uncertainties.

Unfortunately, today her nervousness was, at least in part, _caused_ by Brigitte. _God, she's gonna look so pretty. I hope she doesn't reconsider when she sees me._ For as much as she tried to dress herself up, anyone could tell she hadn't been raised human. Her dress was dusted with soot from Satya's claws. The flowers she had thought would look delicate and feminine woven into her hair instead looked like exactly what they were – plants torn out of the ground and tied in knots into her hair, which was quickly knotting as well from the sticky stuff leaking out of the stems. And her eyes still constantly swept her surroundings for threats. She had never learned how to relax on a human level.

"Here she is!"

Hana turned around. By the cottage's back door she found Brigitte's mother, Ingrid, standing on the steps outside. With a warm smile she opened the door and beckoned someone out. Hana watched with wide, curious eyes as Brigitte stepped outside in the gorgeous silken white dress they had picked out together, sleeveless as a result of the two of them failing to find one that could fit her giant, buff arms. Though her face was veiled, her tiny smile was visible through the gossamer fabric.

Upon seeing that beautiful face, the rest of the world fell away from Hana completely. Brigitte gave her a little finger wave. Hana did the same.

It was incredible how well a tomboy mechanic could clean up when she was trying to impress a girl. Hana wondered if Brigitte was thinking similarly about her.

A sudden wash of heat alerted her that Satya had come up beside her. "She looks lovely," Satya whispered. Hana nodded.

"How embarrassing, you guys wore the same thing!" Sombra's size caused her voice to absolutely drown out everything else. She cracked herself up at her own stupid joke, crushing the plants under her paws as she stomped them with amusement.

"Is it too late to uninvite people?" Hana murmured.

"Hey, Hana!" Brigitte whispered. Hana perked up and turned back to her. "You're supposed to go up on the stage!"

"Oh, n-now??"

"Yeah!"

"Oh!" Hana hurried over to the wood platform. Satya followed her partway, then took a seat in one of the chairs, folding one spiny leg over the other. Her appearance had always seemed normal to Hana, but looking at her now, surrounded by humans, Hana realized just how odd she looked with her scaly orange skin and purple horns. She was a far cry from Brigitte's mom, with her soft human skin and gentle mannerisms.

Hana still wouldn't trade her for anything.

Standing up on the "stage" made Hana even more nervous. She could feel her clammy mammal skin sweating through the fabric of the dress. The only thing that reassured her was looking down and seeing the faces of the friends she'd made since the start of her journey to find her humanity. Satya gave her an affirming nod. All around her Fareeha and the dragonlings were taking seats, and Sombra had angled herself so that she and Jesse could both watch.

Ingrid brought Brigitte over to Torbjörn, at which point she stepped back and joined the rest of the "audience". "Soo..." Brigitte lifted up her veil just a bit to reveal she was smirking at her father. "You going to walk me down the aisle?"

Torbjörn folded his arms and huffed. "I'm not happy about this."

"Oh come on Papa, she's not even a dragon anymore!"

Torbjörn blew out an exasperated breath. "To think I was afraid you might fall in love with one of those people from your metal concerts..." He looked up at Hana, who had her fingers laced and was trying to look as innocent as possible, and then reluctantly dragged himself out of his seat. "I'm only doing this because I love you, Brigitte."

"I know you do." Brigitte linked arms with him, slowing her usual stride so his short legs could keep up as he walked her across the grass.

"Here." Torbjörn handed her over to Hana without any flair. Brigitte smiled a wide, sunny smile as they joined hands.

"You look so pretty," Hana whispered.

"Hey, so do you." Brigitte ran her thumbs over the backs of Hana's hands.

"I know this isn't like, official or anything," Hana added. "But I'm glad you wanted to do it, too."

"Well now if we break up I get half your hoard."

"What?"

Brigitte leaned down and kissed her veiled nose. Hana giggled.

"I'm just kiddin'."

After having their little moment Hana remembered everyone was just watching them. "Uh..." She turned toward the others, then back to Brigitte. "So what do we do now?"

"Oh, right. We read our vows." Brigitte reached into her dress and pulled a folded-up piece of paper from her bra. "You have yours on you, right?"

"Oh, I didn't..." Hana cringed. She'd been reminding herself to finish them, but she couldn't figure out how to put her feelings for Brigitte into mundane human words. "Um, I didn't write them down."

Brigitte raised her eyebrows. "You're just gonna wing it?"

"Y-yeah. Sure."

"You forgot to write them down, didn't you."

"No! No I'd never do that!"

Brigitte snickered. "Okay. Whatever you say." Unfolding her paper, she said, "So I guess I'll go first."

"Yeah. Good idea."

Brigitte cleared her throat, then glanced down at the paper. "Hana, before we met, I kind of always thought I'd be alone. Just working with cold steel and armor. I definitely didn't expect my first girlfriend to be a dragon that showed up to burn down my project village. I'd say I'm surprised that just a year later we're exchanging wedding vows, but, well, we _are_ lesbians."

Fareeha laughed at that. Brigitte smirked. "Anyway, for the vows part..." She took Hana's hands with her own, the paper crunched up into her palm. Apparently she didn't need it for this part. "I promise to be your friend and lover for as long as you want. Which is hopefully a long time."

"Definitely."

"And I promise to take care of you, and hold you, and love you until we're white-haired and wrinkly. Which happens to humans when they get old, by the way."

"Ohh, so _that's_ why Reinhardt looks like that," Hana whispered to herself.

Brigitte snickered.

"So, uh, I didn't write my vows down, as you know, but..." Hana straightened up and swallowed to wet her dry throat. "Brigitte, before I met you humans meant nothing to me. They were just...toys. I played with them and stole their stuff and sometimes even ate them. Meeting you changed my whole life. You made me see all the beautiful little things about humankind. You made me realize I didn't have to be ashamed of my human heart."

She surprised both Brigitte and herself when she threw her arms around her lover. After a moment's surprise Brigitte grabbed her up and clutched her tight to her chest.

"Awwwwww." Sombra pretended to wipe tears from her eyes.

Hana, on the other hand, was starting to feel real tears leak from her own eyes. She held strong and sniffed them back as best she could – then she felt wet droplets on the top of her head.

"Hey! Stop crying, you sap." Hana buried her face in Brigitte's boobs.

"Oh, _I'm_ the sap?" Brigitte wiped Hana's tears from her bosom.

"Okay, fine. I'm a sap, too." They pressed their foreheads together and smiled through their tear-stained veils.

"Can we lift these up now?" Hana asked, tugging at her veil. "I mean, it's not like I've never seen you before."

"You have to take me first, silly."

"Take you?" Hana looked out at everyone watching them. "In front of all our friends?"

Brigitte looked confused for a moment – then her cheeks flushed bright red. "Not like that!"

"O-oh!" Hana took a step back. "I didn't...I don't know what you mean, then."

"I mean, like, we take each other as...wives, I guess." She sputtered a little. "That sounds so unreal. I still can't really believe we're doing this."

"But you want to, right?" Hana searched her face carefully. "'Cause I don't wanna push you."

"Hana. I'm _marrying_ you." Brigitte lifted her veil, and then lifted Hana's. "I take you to be my, uh, non-lawfully wedded but definitely still married wife. There, we're married." She planted a kiss on Hana's lips. Hana squealed and returned the gesture. Reinhardt cheered them on from his seat.

"So we're married now," Hana said. "What do we do next?"

"Honeymoon?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Where should we go?"

"I don't know. Want to take a trip around the world?"

"Ooh, that sounds fun!"

"Then let's do it!" Brigitte took her veil completely off. "We can leave whenever."

Hana could think of nothing more appealing than seeing the wonders of the world with her mate. After all, it had so much to offer, and now that she was human she could go virtually anywhere in human civilization.

"Let's leave tomorrow!"

Brigitte grinned. "Okay. So tonight..."

She gestured to the gigantic wedding cake her mother had just unveiled on the far end of the picnic table. Hana licked her lips.

"Right. The best part of getting married!"

They hardly waited for the cake to be cut before rushing the table and starting in on it.

_I really did pick the best mate in the world._

* * *

 

Hana was smiling in her sleep again. Even with her tiny human body wrapped all the way up to the throat in thick black webbing, hanging upside down from the ceiling of the old Irish castle, she was apparently happy. Peaceful, at least.

Her lover was strung up right beside her, wearing a tiny smile herself. They could not touch, but they were close enough to smell and hear each other. It seemed wrong to keep them any farther apart than that.

"What a couple of absolute fools."

Amélie felt a light impact on her broad back. Moira slipped down her scales and landed by one of her forepaws. Crossing her bony arms, the woman sneered up at the two ensnared humans.

"I don’t know." Amélie folded her paws. Her eight red eyes blinked slowly as she studied the pair. "It is kind of sweet, in a way."

"Well it certainly makes things easier for us." Moira climbed back up Amélie's rough blue scales and sat down on her back. "I have to say, I quite like this universe. Vastly superior to the one where I'm burned at the stake and you go on to become a thousand-year-old demon-possessed abomination."

"Or the one where you turn my skin blue and recruit me into a terrorist organization."

"I sort of liked that one. Managing to keep you alive in such a state was nothing short of a scientific feat."

Amélie swished her spiky tail against the castle wall. She and Moira had nothing to fear anymore – no witches, no dragons, no _Crusaders_ \- all were wrapped up nice and tight in the various rooms of the castle dungeon. Containing all of them, especially the dragons, had not been an easy task. But with the aid of some dark magic the beasts now slumbered in the depths of the castle, existing in the same deep dream as the rest of the creatures they kept within their walls.

Hana shimmied slightly in her constraints. She was still smiling, but now there were tears leaking from between her closed eyelids.

"She is smiling, but she is also crying," Amélie murmured.

"Good for her."

"You know, this is far more evil than anything I would have done." With a burst of golden light, the witch of the wilds sauntered up beside Amélie's gigantic dragon body. "And you aren't even using their souls' energy to feed your own! Such a waste!"

"We're good, upstanding people, Angela." Moira examined her claws. "We would _never_ do something like that."

"Pfft. 'Good, upstanding people.'" The witch snorted. "Of course. Why should I have ever doubted the morals of the sentient lab slime?"

"We were _so_ upstanding that we simply _had_ to gain sentience. The world would have been lesser without us."

Amélie sat watching them at first, but gradually her attention returned to Hana and Brigitte. They had been kind to her. If she felt anything at all she may have been weighted by guilt seeing them like this.

Thankfully, she felt nothing.

Her paw idly batted at the entombed humans. "I am bored," she murmured.

"Let's run some more experiments!" Moira tapped on her scales. "We have a _world_ of subjects to work with – imagine the data we can gather! The unprecedented sample size!"

Amélie yawned. "I guess so."

Moira sighed. "I do wish you shared my enthusiasm for science and learning."

"I can help with it." The witch appeared on Amélie's back as well.

Moira scoffed. "As if I'd trust _you_ with my precious research."

Amélie prodded at Hana and Brigitte some more. "Do you really think they would try to stop us?"

"It isn't worth the risk. And besides, they're clearly happy with this arrangement." Moira dissolved into smoke and reformed clinging on to Hana's cocooned form. "This hideous empty shell of Deathwing can pretend to have a normal life, and she has all her little friends there with her. If she doesn't know she's dreaming, is it really any different from a life in the waking world?"

"I guess not."

"The only difference is that in a dream they can't interfere with anything we may want to do here." Moira dropped down from the cocoon and landed nimbly on the stone floor of the castle. "This whole realm is our playground now. Our test universe. So come!" She settled an ice-cold hand on Amélie's paw. "Let's start _testing_."

After a long yawn and stretch, Amélie picked herself up and allowed Moira to climb back up on top of her.

"I hope this will at least be entertaining."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :')
> 
> (There may be more to come)


End file.
